Arrive in Punta Arenas in time for our pre-trip welcome briefing and biosecurity check. Upon arrival, our local agent
will transfer you from the airport to the hotel. If you would like to arrive earlier, we can arrange extra hotel
nights.

Pick up your packed lunch at the hotel before you are transferred to the airport to take the once-weekly flight
from Punta Arenas, Chile to Mount Pleasant, Falkland Islands (not included in the trip cost). When you arrive in
the early afternoon, you will be transferred to the ship in Stanley. Stanley is an attractive town and the last center of human population you will see until your arrival in Ushuaia, Argentina at the voyage’s end. You should have some time before boarding to walk through town and explore this small corner of the British Empire that appears as if time has forgotten it. You will then be welcomed aboard by our Captain and our fine staff and crew and enjoy your first dinner aboard the ship
before departing for South Georgia!

By morning you’ll be far from the Falklands, heading southeast with albatross and other seabirds following the ship. You’ll stay busy by joining lectures on photography, wildlife, and ecology, familiarizing yourself on all aspects of ship life, preparing for what to expect on South Georgia Island, and enjoying views from the ship. You’ll cross the Polar Front (aka
the Antarctic Convergence) where two bodies of water meet, and as the salty, cold Antarctic water mixes alongside warmer, fresher water from the north, the water temperatures plummet from about 39 to 43°F (4 to 6°C) to 32°F (0°C) in about eight cruising hours, creating nutrient-rich waters for birds, fur seals, and whales. Watch and photograph birds
on the wing; wandering albatross, black-browed albatross, plus a few southern or northern royal albatross
should be following the ship. On previous expeditions, almost a dozen species of petrels (including three
storm-petrel and common diving-petrel species), six species of albatross, thousands of Antarctic prions,
southern fulmars, greater and sooty shearwaters, and snow petrels have all been sighted. Whales you may
encounter include fin, Antarctic minke, and southern right whales. During this time at sea, you’ll cross about
730 nautical miles with the prevailing current in our direction.

Arrival time at South Georgia will depend on weather conditions and currents. We aim to spend six full landing days on South Georgia, one of the most remote islands in the world, to explore this wild landscape of penguins, albatrosses, and seals. The mountainous rugged interior, a geologic continuation of the Andes chain, is carved by more than 150
glaciers into spectacular fjords and ringed by islands. Our timing in this voyage is carefully chosen to
experience South Georgia in a seldom seen but extremely vibrant time. You’ll arrive before the peak
of fur seal breeding (usually in November and December), when males stake out territories at densities so high that travel ashore becomes both dangerous and disruptive. Instead, you arrive during the peak of southern elephant seal breeding. Many large male ‘beachmasters’ seek to own a stretch of beach and are willing to fight in great tonnages of seal jousting because here lie their best hopes for breeding. The male elephant seal puts so much into his territorial defense that his life expectancy is less than half of a female’s. If he is a successful ‘beachmaster’, however, this short life is one of great glory!

In the northeast of the island, you’ll land or zodiac cruise at some of the special sites that become very difficult
to impossible to land on once fur seals are in the height of their breeding, and then you will travel south to
experience the scale and density of penguin breeding colonies at St. Andrews Bay and Salisbury Plain,
absorbing the great richness and variety offered by South Georgia to voyagers so fortunate as ourselves. Here
are some of the landing sites we hope to reach, though we will not be able to visit them all.

Due to the expeditionary nature of our voyage, specific stops cannot be guaranteed. Flexibility is paramount in
expedition travel; our itinerary depends on the conditions. In addition, as of 2023, due to confirmed positive
cases and the presence of avian influenza virus on South Georgia Island, some sites may be temporarily closed
and subsequently reopened in current and future operating seasons. This is an ongoing situation, and we will
adapt our itinerary as necessary to adhere to current or updated biosecurity protocols and environmental
factors. We strive to land often and stay as long as possible, abiding by the Guidelines for Responsible
Ecotourism from the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) and the Government of
South Georgia & the South Sandwich Island.

Elsehul
This little sheltered cove sits on the northwestern extremity of South Georgia on the eastern side of
the rugged Paryadin Peninsula, blocking Southern Ocean westerly winds with 400-meter walls built of
ancient sedimentary rocks folded and stacked during the formation of the Andes. Later in season, the
beaches of Elsehul will become prohibitively dense with fur seals, so this is an ideal time to visit and
see the sublimely beautiful gray-headed albatross nesting on steep tussock grass slopes. Gray-headed
albatross are the first to lay eggs here, so you are sure to find them sitting on nests looking over
Elsehul’s dramatic cove, a sight that few can hope for in a lifetime of travel! Black-browed albatross
and macaroni, gentoo, and king penguins nest here, plus you may see southern giant-petrels quietly
incubating their eggs.

Right Whale Bay
Fur seals are starting to set up territories here at this time, a beach that in the height of the breeding
season looks to be alive with a constant frenetic movement of seals. At the east end of this dramatic
walled cove, you’ll find a colony of king penguins, many lounging in front of a waterfall pouring out of
the island’s interior.

Salisbury Plain
60,000 pairs of king penguins call this glacial plain home, making it a beloved site for any
who explore South Georgia. Salisbury is located in the Bay of Isles, looking out on the
wandering albatross breeding islands of Prion and Albatross. King penguins have a
staggered breeding season where each adult’s activities are dependent upon what
they did the season before. Those that had no chick or an early fledging chick the
previous year will be courting and mating, whereas those that did have a chick in the previous year may delay breeding. These early breeders have the best chances of successfully fledging a chick this year. You will find molting penguins lining the freshwater streams that run from the glaciers to the sea. The charming South Georgia pipit, the world’s southernmost passerine (perching bird), will look upon us curiously while singing. Hopefully snow will still be on the ground around the colony, a canvas of white upon which the penguins walk. The king penguins share the beach with fur seals and elephant seals, and many giant-petrels will be patrolling the shores to forage for the penguins that did not make it through the winter.

Prion Island
If open for visitation, you arrive just before the young, overwintering wandering albatross fledge,
starting years of seafaring life before finally returning as young adults to breed. Each pair of albatross
has a private estate with at least 30 square meters of open space around its nest site for courtship and
takeoffs and landings, a real contrast with the king penguin’s territory of less than one square meter.
Tragically, wandering albatross are declining rapidly because of illegal fishing vessels mining ‘white
gold’, another name for Chilean seabass or Patagonia toothfish.

Grytviken and King Edward Point
Grytviken was one of the most active whaling stations in the history of whaling, but the flensing plan is now empty and the boilers silent. More than 60 years of whaling history is told in the exhibits of the South Georgia
Museum. The natural history exhibits are enriching, and after browsing and perhaps
doing a little museum store shopping and mailing postcards, take a short walk around
the bay to visit the whaler’s graveyard where Shackleton and his right-hand man Frank Wild
lie. The history of Antarctic exploration comes alive as you listen to tales of the adventures
of Sir Ernest Shackleton. This famous explorer crossed the rugged backbone of South
Georgia from the west to arrive at Stromness seeking help for his men stranded on Elephant Island.
The crew of the Endurance, hand-picked by Sir Ernest Shackleton in England for his 1914–1917
expedition, survived on the nutritious, though unappetizing, penguin and seal meat while waiting for
rescue on Elephant Island. Their ship, the Endurance, was crushed by ice in the Weddell Sea months
before, and eventually Shackleton and his men sailed in small boats and landed at Elephant Island with
hardly any room to survive below the steep cliffs along the shore. From Elephant Island, Shackleton
and a handful of men sailed in a small boat to South Georgia, returning to Elephant Island 105 days
later to rescue the stranded men.

Fortuna Bay
In the lee of the central rib of South Georgia’s impressive mountains, you will have good chances for
clear skies and calm conditions. Fortuna Bay ends in an extended glacial alluvial plain covered with a
fine grass where a photogenic king penguin colony resides. Search for nesting light-mantled albatross
on the steep tussock slopes above the king penguin colony..

Shackleton Walk to Stromness
Shackleton, Crean, and Worsley were very near the end of their dramatic and perilous
self-rescue when they stumbled down into Fortuna Bay from the interior of the island.
They had just one short hike remaining, a westward walk of about three miles to Stromness Harbour to reunite with civilization after over 17 months in the Antarctic. You’ll retrace their trek over a 300-meter ridge with
a stunning view across the König Glacier down to Stromness’s rusting inactive whaling
station to reunite with the ship. Godthul Gentoo penguins are now the principal resident of this site where whaling once dominated. Starting in 1908, whaling vessels anchored here and left remains of whalebones and wooden platform boats
called jolles. Two waterfalls feed small lakes on the shoreline before jagged peaks. Listen for the
beautiful light-mantled albatross courtship calls as they soar in synchronized flight overhead.

St. Andrews Bay
Few places in the world are so far beyond description that any attempt rings hollow. St. Andrews Bay is
one, with more than 150,000 pairs of king penguins forming a colony that covers a vast landscape. You
will be mesmerized as you view penguins spanning multiple football fields. As you walk over the glacial
moraine bordering the colony, the large visual mass of penguins along with their calls and smells hit
you, and is an experience you will never forget. You must see, hear, and smell it to believe it.
During this time of year, king penguins will be far from the only attraction at St. Andrews. The southern
elephant seal, the world’s largest seal, gather here by the thousands creating one of the densest concentrations of life on the planet. Expect to see thousands of females with young pups nursing. You can hope to witness beachmaster combat and breeding bouts. St. Andrews Bay has a reputation for volatile weather because it lies at the foot of three
glaciers, where cold air can pour off these glaciers turning a calm quiet morning into a howling, harrowing landscape of katabatic winds in an astonishingly short time, so do pay attention to our expedition leaders!

Gold Harbour
This is one of the most protected sites on South Georgia Island with great chances for clear blue skies. Fair or foul, you will find a beach at least as densely packed with southern elephant seals as St. Andrews Bay
(though a smaller beach, so fewer numbers overall). In addition, observe about 25,000
pairs of king penguins, which line a glacial meltwater river winding behind the beach, a gentoo penguin colony, and steep slopes with light-mantled albatross nesting on their flanks. A tumbling icefall borders the back of
the harbor making for stunning landscapes dramatized by the occasional explosion of
glacial blocks tumbling down the cliff face.

Royal Bay
Several landing sites attract us to Royal Bay, though accessing the exposed bay is highly weather
dependent. A growing king penguin colony has topped 30,000 pairs at Brisbane Point in recent counts,
with constant activity upon the cobblestone beach boulders through what can be heavy surf. A fjordlike glacially carved valley empties into Moltke Harbour, a backdrop for up to 1,000 elephant seals.

Cooper Bay
A colony of marvelous macaroni penguins and South Georgia’s only colony of chinstrap penguins
reside here. A hike up through tussock slopes will reward you with macaronis in a frenzy of early
breeding season activity. You are sure to see chinstraps traveling through the surf and loafing on the
beach or an iceberg. The Government of South Georgia has restricted access to the main chinstrap colony here and on Cooper Island due to a 2004 outbreak of avian cholera, and the colony will probably still be closed to landings. Cooper Bay sits just inside from Cooper Island, a rat-free island that is extremely important breeding habitat for burrow-nesting seabirds and South Georgia pipits. Cooper Island is designated a “Site of Special Scientific Interest”, and thus closed to all landings.

Drygalski Fjord and Larsen Harbour
Southern South Georgia differs strikingly in geology from the remainder of the island, and in the sheer-walled Drygalski Fjord you can really see this difference. Asyou cruise up the fjord, you can see granite, gabbro, and metamorphic rocks to starboard (ship’s right), remnant of the Gondwana continental margin. To port (ship’s left), the mountains are built of the “Larsen Harbour Complex”

Your route to Antarctica will be packed with wildlife watching opportunity from the ship’s deck and attending
informative lectures. The waters between South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula are rich with fin whales;
in good conditions we have observed as many as a hundred in a single day! Be on the lookout for Antarctic
petrel, Kerguelen petrel, and one of the most beautiful birds of the Southern Ocean, the snow petrel. Our
lectures are designed to add scientific and historic depth and knowledge to your expedition, and our workshops will focus on photographic techniques and critiques to enhance your photos. Due to the expeditionary nature of our voyage,
our passage length may vary depending on ice, weather, and wildlife conditions. Sailing time may exceed two days between South Georgia Island and the Antarctic Peninsula and South Shetland Islands. The average cruising speed of
the Plancius is 10.5 knots.

We hope to make good time on the navigation from South Georgia to the Antarctic Peninsula giving us six days
to explore the Antarctic. The early season is an exciting time as ice is begins to recede, allowing passage to
some of our favorite landing sites. During the spring season, penguin colonies are re-forming with penguins
courting, setting up nests, and some laying eggs. We’re very excited to share the Antarctic’s early season with
you. These are some of our favorite sites and routes we choose from, although we will not be able to visit
them all!

The South Shetland Islands
These are a string of volcanic islands, some still active, that run parallel to the Antarctic Peninsula
across the Bransfield Strait. Fondly known as the “Banana Belt of Antarctica,” these islands boast the
richest concentrations of terrestrial wildlife in the Antarctic because of their proximity to the rich
upwelling waters from the great Circumpolar Current. Even with our luxuriously in-depth itinerary, we
will have to choose between many very
compelling sites.

Deception Island is a favorite on our voyage. This horseshoe-shaped, volcanic island is still
active, as its hot thermal pools demonstrate Deception Island offers stunning views of an icy landscape starkly contrasted by black beaches and clouds of steam rising from hot sands. Hopefully, you will experience the
outer caldera, and then venture inside the caldera via a narrow gap called Neptune’s Bellows. Bailey Head is home to about 60,000 chinstrap penguins, but the sea can make landings tricky with steep swells crashing on
an exposed beach. Inside Deception’s huge caldera, a landing at Whaler’s Bay may
include a short hike up the mountainside among the lichen-draped cliffs to the scenic overlook at
Neptune’s Window after walking past Weddell seals basking on the beach.
On a clear day, the chinstrap penguins of Half Moon Island make a delightful foreground to the
breathtaking coastline of nearby Livingston Island. At this end of the Earth, the vast scale of nature will
open our senses and we ask you to give great respect to the fragile vegetation and the wildlife
colonies.

Chinstrap and gentoo penguins breed on Aitcho Island, an island covered in mossy green carpets, a
surprisingly bright contrast to Antarctica’s intensely achromatic landscapes. Conditions permitting, walk across the island past the southern elephant seal wallows, offering a terrific chance to see (and smell!) the world’s largest species of seal, along with the chance to see hauled out Weddell seals and southern
fur seals. From the South Shetlands, we sail southwest across the Bransfield Strait into the fabled Gerlache Strait. Here you can expect whale sightings to ring out from the bridge as the Antarctic Peninsula landscape rises into a glacier-draped view of mountainous proportion. You’ll sail the waters around Anvers Island, Dallmann
Bay to the north, and the Gerlache to the east. Hope for magnificent sunsets, sculpted blue icebergs,
and close penguin and whale encounters, each with the potential for an experience that you will never
forget.

Over the last few decades, the Southern Ocean has experienced a significant warming trend, showing
clear evidence of climate change. The Antarctic Peninsula has been feeling climate change the most
with a massive 9°F (5°C) warming in average winter temperatures over the
last 50 years. Although this has dramatically changed and reduced ice distributions, you will still be among a
world of spectacular icebergs!

Western Antarctic Peninsula ~ The Danco Coast, Neumeyer Channel, and
Lemaire Channel Weather and ice distributions will determine whether we travel south
down the west coast or sail east through the Antarctic Sound into the Weddell
Sea; happily, you have ample time for a thorough exploration of the Antarctic Peninsula. When heading south, travel along the picturesque Danco Coast on the west coast of Graham Land. This area has awe-inspiring scenery with coastlinesdeeply indented with bays and scattered with islands. Impressive mountains rise sharply from the
coast to the central Graham Land Plateau and glaciers descend to narrow piedmont ice shelves.
Extensive Zodiac cruising and landings during the best light will allow you to soak in the serenity of this
majestic place.

As you travel along the coast, you’ll wander into Wilhemina Bay, Neko Harbour, and Paradise Bay,
among the most beautiful areas in Antarctica. These waters rank high on our list of favorite places for
Zodiac cruising. Enjoy views of sculpted icebergs and surfacing whales as we cruise the inner bays near
spectacular glaciers and ethereal mountains. You can expect wonderful whale behavior in these
plentiful summer feeding grounds. The krill swarms are enormous, sometimes even visible on the
ship’s depth sounder. Gentoo and chinstrap penguin colonies reside here, sometimes side-by-side,
along with their attendant scavengers: snowy sheathbills, brown skuas, south polar skuas, and kelp
gulls. Our potential landing in Neko Harbour on the Antarctic continent will treat you with a walk to an
incredible view.

Named after the 16th Century English seaman, Sir Francis Drake, this waterway of about 600 miles separates
the southernmost tip of South America from Antarctica. You cross the Polar Front approximately halfway
across Drake Passage. Those on watch may sight several species of albatross and petrel following the ship; it is
a particularly good area for royal albatross and blue petrel. Stay on the lookout for pods of sperm whales and
other whales. Almost 500 miles north of the South Shetlands, you will near Cape Horn, with a distant view before turning northeast toward the Beagle Channel. The offshore area is as rich as seawaters can be and seabirds are usually present in huge numbers, especially sooty shearwaters and black-browed albatross if the sea is calm. Sometimes you may see Peale’s dolphins in schools of hundreds of individuals. This evening you’ll navigate back up the Beagle
Channel to dock in Ushuaia.

This morning you will be reluctant to say goodbye to
your spirited shipmates and leaders! After an early
breakfast and clearing customs, disembark the ship to
transfer to the airport, to Ushuaia to wander town
before transferring to the airport, or directly to your hotel.