How i wish......

project description

On December 2008, we will travel aboard the Antarctic Dream Cruise Ship to the Antarctic Peninsula to make a 550 miles self-supported kayak journey visiting the Palmer Archipelago and the Danco Coast, both among the places with highest wildlife density in the white continent.

The main objective of this expedition will be to do a photographic and audiovisual register of landscapes, wildlife and human occupation in this Antarctic region, from the deep and non-disturbing perspective of a kayak expedition. This material will be destined to the creation of a documentary film, book, articles and a web site that will inform of the occurrence of events during the expedition and the results obtained, particularities of the landscapes and wildlife in Antarctica, and the unique model of Pacific concurrence of nations that only exists in that continent.

In order to achieve this goal the expedition will count on the participation of Roger Rovira, kayaker and professional photographer specialized in nature and expedition photography, and with the audiovisual maker and cameraman Cristian Donoso who has produced three documentary films of kayak expeditions in the toughest Patagonian settings.

This Journey will be accomplished in an absolutely self-supported manner, without the assistance of any vessel, previous deposit of food or equipment or any other kind of external help. Navigating by kayak provided of big storage compartments, we will carry all our food and equipment, which will include ropes and ice climbing gear, in case of disembarking at an ice wall.

Along with the inaccessibility of the coast, other geographical aspects that defy the expedition’s logistics are the isolation, the furious Antarctic storms and the ice floes formed by the agglomeration of icebergs pushed by the wind.

During the first month, the three expeditionaries will circumnavigate the Anvers and Brabant Islands, first seen in February 1820 by the United States citizen Nathaniel Palmer, on the voyage where he discovered Antarctica. During this first 300 miles stage, we will do a meticulous survey of the North coast of the Anvers Island, barely explored due to its countless rocks, small islands and shallow waters exposed to the open sea, which makes it a dangerous place to incursion in larger vessels. We will also explore the cliffy nooks of Brabant Island, and we will visit the bases, Lockroy, England; Palmer, U.S.A; and Islas Melchior, Argentina.

On the second month we will explore the Danco coast fjords, as deep as the ice floes allow it, navigating nearly 200 miles between the Chilean base, Gabriel Gonzalez and the Argentinean Primavera base. From that coast – which’s name remembers the unfortunate Lieutenant Danco, from the Gerlache expedition- We will cross to Trinidad Island circumnavigating and exploring its coast until we reach the Mikkelsen Bay, where we will be picked up at the end of February by the Antarctic Dream, to return to the American continent.

Just like in our previous expeditions, this journey will be trackable on-line on this website.