Chapter 11: The Food – for thought!

There are stories of early sailors surviving Antarctica winters on penguin blabber, we were far more fortunate. The ship served 6 meals with an assortment of cuisines. Most of the travelers were 60 years or older (remember time and money constraints??) and from almost every part of the world. Meal options included gluten free – vegan meals to a full array of sea foods, exotic vegetables and international cuisine. Since you can’t fetch fresh produce in Antarctica most of it is stocked at the time of sailing.

There are two important components to any meal. The food and the company. If you are a European, add wine and if American, add beer as well. I used to look forward to the meal times. Travelling solo, also means patches of lonely period with no one to talk to fulltime. While, this gives you ample opportunity to self introspect, it does take away your defense mechanism which social interactions provide. The meal times used to be my conversation times when I could chat with folks I had now come to become familiar with.

Interactions with them broke many myths about Indians being from a third world country. I for one, felt not one bit inferior on income parity, and we were some of the privileged section of society on that ship. Where I felt inferior was in physical ability and spiritual content. An average 60 year old from a developed country is more of a 30 year old from India. Better bone density and physical endurance training, meant they could enjoy and explore longer. A lot of them were kayaking on Antarctic seas. On a spiritual level, they carry far lesser baggage and guilt than average Indians. More of a live for thyself attitude, which is also symbolic of fragmented social structures in the western world. I don’t know which one is correct, so I ,merely documented these as observances to brood on later in life.

My loneliness was making me feel a bit homesick. I was craving for home cooked meals and familiarity of language when we landed at Damoy point. This was my first encounter with true Antarctic weather – cold, hostile, inhospitable. It was snowing, with biting winds adding chill factor to the sub zero temperatures. The clouds were dark grey creating a mystical backdrop for snow clad mountains- one look at the sheet of whites all around made me wonder, how can this purity be so hostile? Or is it its defense mechanism?

Life is brimming at Paradise Bay. That was my first thought during our day cruising and landing. Unknown and unseen to average humans on mainland, life here is breathing and changing by the moment. Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins are cross breeding and preparing themselves for the long winters ahead. Orca whales are invading the seas. Fur, crab eater and leopard seals are enjoying their last of summer sun baths. Wherever your eyes can travel, there is a life form.

We had encounters of hump back whales from as close as 2 feet. A tiny whisk of its fin would have been enough to topple the 20 of us on the zodiac but thanks to expert maneuvering of our expedition crew, the disaster was avoided. It is one thing to swim in Antarctic sea with all planned intentions and quite another to be thrown into the frozen depths.

It had been a good season for whales and they seemed to be recovering from the whaling onslaughts. We sighted 78 whales in total across 6 species during our entire journey. By the time we had reached Paradise Bay we were experts at sighting whales from a distance and everyone had enough whale tail shots and whale breach events captured on their cameras. I for one had given up on photography and paid more attention to my sensorial. Pictures could always be bought from professionals on board, the visions I was capturing in my heart and mind were more precious.