Over the years, I have done some unusual things in some unexpected places on Christmas Eve. A water pistol fight in Bendigo, Australia, was probably the most fun; four hours waiting for an AA van on the M20 after a last-minute Christmas booze shop in Calais was certainly the least fun.

But despite knowing I would be in Antarctica during last year’s festive season, I was still surprised to find myself on that particular day sending postcards back to Blighty from the most southerly British post office in the world.

Port Lockroy – 64°49S 63°29W – is an old British base located in a natural harbour on the Antarctic Peninsular. Over the years it has been used as a whaling station, for spying on German shipping during World War II and as a meteorological research station. Today, it serves as a museum of Antarctic history and as a post office.

I was on an expedition to the Antarctic Peninsular with 30-odd other tourists on a rather small ship called the Akademik Shokalskiy. Our expedition leader had already told us we would be passing Port Lockroy, but that we would not be landing there since it was the height of Antarctica’s tourist season and the base was inundated with parties from much bigger cruise ships.

Luckily for us, a quick chat over the radio with the British Antarctic Survey staff who permanently man the station during the austral summer revealed there were in fact a few hours free for us to cram in a visit. We promptly landed and had a quick look around the base’s environs, as well as a visit to the tiny museum. I bought a couple of special British Antarctica stamps to send my postcards (I was rather impressed they only took a few weeks to arrive at their destinations).

“Aitcho Island was nowhere near as cold as I had been expecting: its pebbled beaches were almost entirely free of ice and snow. However, unlike all the pebbled beaches I had previously wandered on, these were home to thousands of gentoo penguins and a few elephant seals.”

My girlfriend and I had joined the Akademik Shokalskiy a week before at the Argentine port of Ushuaia. A former Russian ice research ship, it is one of several that carry expeditions from Tierra del Fuego in South America, via the stormy seas of Drake’s Passage, to Antarctica during the “warm” period between November and March.

Our guides for the expedition were a mix of British, US and Australasian academics, who mainly specialise in marine biology and geology. Some of these people had been working in Antarctica for decades, so it was well worth attending the lectures given by them during the two-day ‘shake in the Drake’ at the start and end of our voyage.

We learned about the penguins we would be seeing in the Antarctic Peninsular region, and there were talks about Antarctic birdlife, geology and how climate change was affecting the region. There was even a lecture on Ernest Shackleton, given by an Antarctic historian who had re-enacted the explorer’s 800-mile navigation in a tiny lifeboat from Elephant Island to South Georgia.

After two days of being thrown around our own, much bigger, boat, we finally hit the shelter of the South Shetland Islands and calm! Now the expedition proper had begun.

Our first landing was at Aitcho Island. During our voyage, the Akademik Shokalskiy had already passed a few icebergs, so I had wrapped up extra warm underneath the parka jacket that the expedition company provided for free.

“From our tiny craft, which was negotiating its way carefully through a floating kingdom of castle-shaped icebergs, the views of the huge glaciers that make up the Antarctic Peninsular could truly be described as awe-inspiring.”

But Aitcho Island was nowhere near as cold as I had been expecting: its pebbled beaches were almost entirely free of ice and snow. However, unlike all the pebbled beaches I had previously wandered on, these were home to thousands of gentoo penguins and a few elephant seals.

Before boarding the Zodiac inflatable boats that would land us on Aitcho, we had had a briefing about what not to do when walking around on Antarctic islands. In addition to a ban on bringing anything ashore that could be discarded (food, wrappers, plastic bags, etc.), we were told to keep at least five metres away from any animals we might come across. Apparently penguins, in particular, get quite disturbed when strange bipedal creatures come too near – especially ones wearing bright yellow parkas!

However, it was perfectly all right to sit down, stay still and wait for a penguin to wander up close and give you a bit of an inspection. I was lucky enough to have such a penguin encounter; the gentoo in question came to within a couple of feet of me and the feeling is not unlike that experienced when returning an ape’s stare at the zoo.

Between Aitcho Island and Port Lockroy we made several other landings, as well as cruises by Zodiac – from where we inspected plenty of icebergs up close and spotted a couple of humpback whales.

One particular Zodiac cruise captured the essence of Antarctica for me. From our tiny craft, which was negotiating its way carefully through a floating kingdom of castle-shaped icebergs, the views of the huge glaciers that make up the Antarctic Peninsular could truly be described as awe-inspiring.

Other activities on offer were kayaking (under the supervision of a qualified instructor) and camping overnight on the ice.

I declined both opportunities, but my girlfriend jumped at the chance to kayak in the Antarctic waters and was rewarded with the rare experience of getting within a paddle’s length of a leopard seal, “singing” in its sleep while lying on a piece of floating ice. Leopard seals, which mainly prey on penguins, have been known to attack humans (there has been at least one fatality), so I was not sure about the wisdom of this encounter when I heard about it.

Looking back, I have to say that the expedition ranks as one of my best trips. As an experience, Antarctica has that certain virgin quality to it that I have only come across before in the Moroccan Desert.

However, while there are limits on how visitors behave in Antarctica, it is a sad fact that human beings do not have to go to the place in order to damage it. On our trip, we witnessed several new icebergs being formed from the Peninsular’s glaciers and I wonder how much of it will be left when I next get to visit...

Jon travelled to the Antarctic Peninsular with Quark Expeditions

Tips:

- Although the voyage from and back to Ushuaia lasts for 11 days, travellers from the UK are best advised to fit in a few extra days in Argentina either side of it in order to deal with jetlag and recover from the expedition itself.

- Take sea sickness tablets

- Bring layers: thermal underwear, plenty of T-shirts, jumpers. And bring waterproof trousers. The company supplies wellington boots and parka jackets.

By Jon Mainwaring