Pictures and tips from my Quark Expedition on the Antarctica cruise ship: Kapitan Dranitsyn.
My 2001 Quark Expedition
I took notes of my Antarctica vacation in my diary. I was on an Antarctica Cruise on the Antarctica ship "Kapitan Dranitsyn" from Quark Expeditions.
I have heard that recently with the lease on the Kapitan Dranitsyn, Murmansk Shipping Company is taking her back from Quark Expeditions to work in northern Russia. However, Quark Expeditions have leased similar ice breakers for the upcoming polar seasons like the Kapitan Khlebnikov, which could give you an exact similar Antarctica vacation like the one I had on the Kapitan Dranitsyn.
Always keep in mind that the weather of Antarctica dictates what your Quark expedition will look like: colder days can make the ice very think, snowy days can make for less outdoor activities...
Although we did brave cold snow in the zodiacs (which I found pretty scary, but then again, I always felt in very good hands on this Quark expedition.)
Admire my Quark expedition Antarctica pictures and the Antarctic penguins, read about "Antarctica fun" when cruising the Drake Passage and get ideas for your own Antarctica vacation throughout the blog Antarctica Cruises.
Especially have a look at : Antarctica – some things that you should be prepared for
Have you been on a Quark Expedition yourself?
If you have been on a Quark expedition or any Antarctica Cruise yourself, or you have been on a mission on Antarctica or you did an Antarctica expedition, please send your Antarctica pictures and- or your stories about living on Antarctica to: info [at] cruisesantarctica.com
Your Antarctica Input will be added on this Antarctica site, thanks!
My Quark Expedition from Malaysia to Antarctica
And back of course... As beautiful as Antarctica is and as cute as the Antarctic Penguins look, an Antarctica cruise is a once in a life-time experience for me.
We started our Antarctica Cruise the 5th of February 2002 and the Antarctica Vacation ended the 13th. Yes, cruising Antarctica during Chinese new year, putting me in Antarctica was the only way to keep me away from our annual new year dinner...
Antarctica Vacation with Quark expeditions
We embarked our Antarctica vacation on the "Kapitan Dranitsyn", which is a specialized Antarctica Cruise ship from Quark Expeditions: it has all in all 6 engines, which is pretty useful in case you are in the middle of nowhere on your Antarctica vacation and suddenly 1 of the engines would break down...
On top of that, Quark expeditions uses a Russian crew: and Russians are well known to be very inventive once it comes to solving problems, whichever would occur on our Antarctica Vacation. And I can only say: our Antarctica Vacation went just smooth!
But most important of all why we chose to be on the Kapitan Dranitsyn with quark expeditions is that these Russian Antarctica ships can "go where nobody else goes". These Russian sturdy looking ships can nicely make their way through the Antarctic ice.
As I will post later, our ship once just stopped right in front of an iceberg, so we could touch the ice with our bare hands...
Ok, not with bare hands please!!!, but covered in warm gloves...
Read more in my Quark Expedition diary
My Quark expedition diary (or at least what I managed to recover...)