South Shetland Islands - Antarctica

A very familiar name to anyone even vaguely versed in Antarctic history as it is where 22 members of Shackleton's Trans-Antarctic "Endurance" expedition were stranded in 1915 after their ship was crushed in Weddell Sea pack ice. They spent 135 days on the island while Shackleton and a small party set off on another journey to South Georgia to fetch help in the James Caird one of the lifeboats from the by then sunken Endurance. This is widely regarded as one of, if not the most incredible small boat journey ever.

Elephant Island is 60km long and 40km wide, with penguin rookeries (chinstraps) and some very old moss banks (over 2000 years old). On the south western side of the island at Stinker Point, is a place called Wreck Bay, where there is some wreckage from a ship. In 1998 these remains were recognized as being probable flotsam from Shackleton's Endurance. Landings on Elephant island are not common as it is often difficult to approach due to sea and weather conditions.

The largest of the South Shetland Islands and the least isolated and least typical place in Antarctica. Why? because twelve different countries have a base here.

The island is about 1295 sq km, more than 90% of it being glaciated, so the bases are squeezed into quite a small area. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Poland, Russia, South Korea, and Uruguay have year round bases, while Ecuador, Germany, Peru and the US have summer only bases.

The island is quite low and flat and the coast line is broken into many bays and fjords. There is a variety of wildlife found on the island including Antarctic terns, chinstrap and  Adélie penguins, blue-eyed shags and southern giant petrels.

The Byers Peninsula on western end of Livingston Island's is protected as a "SSSI" Site of Special Scientific Interest under the Antarctic Treaty because it contains the greatest concentration of 19th-century historical sites in Antarctica.

In the early years of the 19th century Livingston Island was a major sealing centre. Hannah Point, named after the British sealer "Hannah" (from Liverpool), wrecked in the South Shetlands on Christmas Day 1820 is one of the most popular stops in Antarctica. A fantastic place for viewing wildlife at close quarters, there are large chinstrap and gentoo penguin rookeries here (with occasional  macaroni penguins), blue-eyed shags, skuas, Wilson's storm petrels, southern elephant and southern fur seals.

The island has the summer only Spanish station, Juan Carlos Primero, and the Bulgarian base, St Kliment Ohridskiy also summer only. Livingston Island has the highest point of the South Shetlands at 2400m (7800ft).

Protected by high cliffs and a narrow entrance (Neptune's Bellows) this 12km wide amphitheatre is one of the safest natural harbours in the world. It was first used by sealers as a base for operations and then later by whalers.  

By the 1914-1915 season, thirteen whaling factories had been built here and many relics from this time can still be seen abandoned in various places. Deception Island is a very popular place to stop for tourist ships as you can go "swimming" in the waters of Pendulum Cove that are heated by ongoing volcanic activity about a mile below the waters inside the collapsed caldera. "Swimming" is a relative term as the reality consists of sitting in the shallows between the too-hot volcanically heated waters and the too cold icy Antarctic ocean waters. If it starts to get cold, stir up some of the black volcanic sand to release some more heat, if it gets too warm, move towards the cooler open sea.  

In the 1920-1921 season, the water here boiled and stripped the paint from the hulls of the whaling ships, an eruption in 1969 destroyed the British base. Deception Island last erupted as recently as 1991-1992 with more activity reported in 1994.

The landscape is very strange, more of a moonscape consisting of dark volcanic sand and rocks, all the more strange for the penguins that are found here in such large numbers in such an unusual location.

There are two summer only bases here, Spain's Gabriel de Castilla and Argentina's Decepción. Hundreds of thousands of penguins nest on Deception Island.

Old whalers hut, Deception Island - photo Ulf Gustafsson

Old whalers building, Deception Island - photo Ulf Gustafsson