The rainforest seems to have luxury hotels popping up all over, you can get a direct flight to any number of remote Pacific atolls, and there are even queues to reach the summit of Everest! We’ve tamed and colonized most of the world, but one vast stretch of the planet remains beyond our grasp: Antarctica. And if you think that exploring the last unspoiled continent would be an expedition to rival the logistics of Shackleton or Scott, then think again as now you can take in the sites, in luxury transport in just a day.
Although the trip run by Natural World Safaris runs between November and January when the Southern Continent gets a full 24 hours of sunlight a day, if you really want a crash course in polar expedition without committing yourself to too long or arduous journey then this one is definitely the one for you:
A 5.5 hour charter flight from Cape Town takes up to 12 passengers at a cost of $195,000 via a private Gulfstream jet to the icy destination where you’re dropped off at a lodge at the base of a large nunatak…which you will soon learn is a peak or rock formation exposed above the ice sheet. From there, enjoy 8 hours of exploration visiting nearby grottos, the ice-blue glaciers and a track to see a colony of indigenous Adelie penguins.
Back at the lodge get treated to a gourmet Champagne lunch before jetting back to South Africa. Its truly a spectacular twenty-four hours spent in the footsteps of some of the bravest and most adventurous trailblazers on the planet, the ultimate wilderness destination and the final pristine and unspoiled environment…but this time tamed somewhat by the luxury and technology of the modern age.
Too good to be true? Never. For those of us life-lovers, its just another way to enjoy this beautiful planet. One day (trip) at a time.
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