All language subtitles for Travel.Quest.With.Bill.Ball.S01E02.CONVERT.1080p.HDTV.H264-CBFM

BILL BALL: There is one place
left on earth where nature rules

and no government controls it.

It is a land that can be
unforgiving and treacherous

but also beautiful, serene
and full of wildlife.

It is the last great adventure
for many travellers

and my personal quest

as I explore the
unrivalled wilderness of Antarctica.

Since I was young,

I had an intense desire
to discover the world around me.

That hasn't changed,
just the level of adventure.

Now, every journey has a purpose,

and each time I venture out
to explore

new destinations around the globe,

I am following my travel quest.

The trip to Antarctica can begin in
either New Zealand or South America,

with the latter being the
most accessible and closest route.

I chose the closer route

and booked my expedition with Quark.

Quark is a specialist on both
Antarctica and the Arctic cruises.

Their programs, though,
actually begin in Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires is a vibrant city

with incredible
architectural treasures

and a culture that is part European
and part South American.

The most famous section of the city
is the La Boca area.

One of the pricier neighbourhoods,
it is rich in colour,

having used the timbers and paint
from excess ship cargoes.

This is one of the neighbourhoods
that became

devout followers of Eva Peron,
or more simply, Evita.

She was the wife
of the dictator Juan Peron.

Because of her simple upbringing,

Evita became the symbol and spokesman
for the poor.

Eva Peron is buried
in the La Recoleta Cemetery,

ironically surrounded
by the tombs of the wealthy

that she never saw eye to eye with.

This cemetery is one of
the unique sights of Buenos Aires.

There is also a connection
to another national hero -

San Martin,
the liberator of the country.

His wife and parents are buried at
the entrance of the city of the dead.

But it is Evita's grave
that the public comes to see.

As you stand there,
you can almost hear her say,

"Don't cry for me, Argentina."

From the home of Evita,

it is a three-and-a-half-hour flight
to our cruise launch point.

Ushuaia is an eclectic mix
of frontier outpost,

tourist shopping extravaganza
and exploration base.

The town could easily be mistaken
for part of the Alps,

with its mountaineering charm
and setting.

It has, though, an ominous past
it can't quite live down.

Ushuaia was once home of Argentina's

worst-of-the-worst criminals

and their political prisoners,

their Alcatraz.

Like Alcatraz,
there was only one successful escape.

Ushuaia is an island
surrounded by frigid waters

at the bottom of the world.

There was literally nowhere to go.

It is fitting that Ushuaia
is the jumping-off point

for Antarctic cruises,

because it once hosted

the greatest and most important
exploration adventure ever -

the HMS Beagle and its
famous naturalist, Charles Darwin.

We have
a few hours

before
boarding
our ship,

so we decided to visit

one of the world's southernmost

national parks - Tierra del Fuego.

It is the terminus
of the Pan-American Highway,

which can be driven continuously all
the way to Alaska, 11,000 miles away.

It is also the last stop
for the End of the World Train,

the most southern functioning railway
in the world.

The park is 240 square miles
of some of the most pristine

alpine forests, meadows and wetlands.

This was certainly worth the detour.

620 miles separate
the world's southernmost town

from the northernmost point
of Antarctica,

which is the peninsula
and its outlying islands.

We begin our journey by
sailing through the Beagle Channel,

a roughly 60-mile stretch of waterway
between Chile and Argentina

at the tip of South America.

Beyond the channel
is the infamous Drake Passage,

where the confluence of three oceans,

the Atlantic, Pacific and Southern,

come together to produce the world's
most treacherous and unpredictable

stretch of water.

We could have
40-foot waves crashing over us

or we could enjoy smooth sailing.

Well, everything's
calm and easy right now,

but we're about to enter
the Drake Passage,

which has the most turbulent waters
in the world.

How bad is it gonna be?

It all depends on the weather.

How can this trip start out
any better?

I've never sailed
under a double rainbow,

and I'm thinking,
"This has got to be a good omen."

But we're barely out of the channel

and things are starting to get
a little rocky.

The swells were topping 25 feet
through the infamous Drake Passage,

violent enough to send a good number
of passengers to their cabins

but nowhere near the 40-foot waves
I had heard about.

This was considered
an average crossing,

and I never thought I'd say I liked
average, but I liked average.

The real adventure, though,
begins the second evening,

when we reach the land down under -
Antarctica -

and with our arrival,
the seas were calm and flat.

Almost immediately, we're greeted by
the Antarctic welcoming committee -

humpback whales.

These giants of the sea
are migratory,

coming south
to the krill-filled Antarctic sea

before returning
to the warm waters of the north

to give birth to the next generation.

At 62 feet long and weighing 40 tons,

they are
the third-largest creature alive.

To put their size in perspective,

a fully grown adult can weigh
as much as six male African elephants

and eat the equivalent
of a pick-up truck daily.

Before we continue,
let's talk about who owns Antarctica.

Well, it turns out nobody does.

In 1959,
a treaty was signed by 12 nations,

including the United States,

which sets aside Antarctica
as a scientific preserve

and bans military activity
on the continent.

This treaty was
the first arms control negotiation

established during the Cold War,

and today, 53 countries
are part of the agreement.

The scientific teams
who work in Antarctica

follow
strict environmental guidelines,

pledging to leave the continent
as pristine as they found it.

Our camera guy, Dave,

has worked
with the National Science Foundation

and the US Antarctic Program
for years.

There are still many unexplored areas
of the continent,

and Antarctica
is considered a bellwether

for extreme effects
of climate change.

There is some amazing research being
done on the ice, as it's called,

and this is a shining example
of what is possible in a world

if nations agree to cooperate.

There are a number of locations
designated for visits

by non-researchers,
or, in the vernacular, tourists.

Each allows one ship
to anchor at a time

so no two ships
will share a location.

That is because a limit
to the number of visitors per site

is strictly enforced.

The protection of the wildlife

is the top priority
of the exploration teams

that bring the guests
to this pristine environment.

Our first landing
brought us up close and personal

with a colony of gentoo penguins.

Reaching up to 36 inches tall,
they are formidable eating machines,

consuming up to two pounds
of krill and fish each day

while chick-rearing.

The young are born
at the beginning of summer

to make the most out of the warmth.

Upper 30s to low 40s
in the hottest months of the year,

the summer of Antarctica is the
opposite of the Northern Hemisphere,

so December, January and February
mark the chick-rearing season.

The first thing you notice as you
near a penguin colony is the odour.

Trust me when I say
that you can be thankful

that smell-a-vision
has yet to be invented.

The second thing you'll notice
is the huge number of birds,

and penguins, of course, are birds.

With one exception,
penguins are not social animals

but they're colonial animals,

which means that they come together

for all the important events
of their lives -

moulting, breeding,
hatching their young -

and they do that to
protect themselves from predators.

When I said they were not social,
I meant it in the biological sense.

They will not help rear
other gentoos' chicks

even if the parents are lost.

They will not protect each other

or help and provide food
for an injured animal.

It was early February

and there was a large number
of newly full-grown chicks.

This is how it should be
in a healthy colony.

For the chicks to have a chance
in their first year,

when as many as 80% will perish,

they need to be fully fledged
with their adult plumage

before the warmth of the summer
gives way to a very long winter.

(PENGUINS CHATTER)

The wonders of Antarctica,
even in this landing,

which is rich in gentoo
and other birds,

goes beyond the wildlife.

Getting up close to the penguins
is incredible,

but whenever I get a chance to
get up high and get a panorama view,

I take it.

From here,
I could see glaciers calving,

the bay full of ice,
and I could see the ship.

The site is beautiful.

The bay is full of ice,

created when the salt water and waves
undercut the glaciers.

Not all ice is from glaciers, though.

Large tabular ice sheets, large
enough to hold a city block of homes,

though it would be temporary housing,

break away from the ice shelves.

Ice shelves are frozen sea water

that extend out miles from
the actual landmass of Antarctica.

These ice sheets
will ultimately break apart,

creating clear sea lanes, which allow
the modern research bases to exist.

One of those stations
has taken advantage

of their position on the peninsula

to service tourists' needs.

Port Lockroy,
a historic British station,

was established in 1943

to secure an area of Antarctica
claimed by early British explorers.

In 1959, the station was closed
after 16 years of year-round manning,

and I mean manning,
since it was an all-male crew.

The station was reopened years later

as a museum,
gift shop and post office

and is now the most visited site
in Antarctica.

OK - we go nine...

..19...19:50?

Can you be back 19:50?

Come back and catch the Zodiac.

Alright. Enjoy.

BILL BALL: This base is often called
the Penguin Post Office,

since a colony of gentoos nest here.

Well, I'm here in Port Lockroy,

which is the most southern
post office in the world

and the biggest souvenir store
in all of Antarctica.

I've got some postcards to send.

I've got one for my brother, whose
birthday is six weeks from now -

that should arrive
pretty much right on time -

one for my parents
and one for the other producer,

who's up in the warmth of Chicago
while I'm down here in Antarctica.

All postcards
get an Antarctic cancellation

and a 6-week journey
to their destination

for the low price of US$1.

Each year, Port Lockroy handles
up to 60,000 postcards

from explorers,
ship passengers and staff.

The relative quiet life of penguins
may not last long,

as we spot their major predator,
a leopard seal,

just feet from the colony,
lazily riding an iceberg,

waiting for the right moment
to strike an unwary bird.

This is
a massive female leopard seal.

Its name comes from its spotted coat,

but it is appropriate
in another, more ominous, way.

It is the stealth hunter
of the Antarctic waters.

It is the major predator of penguins,
especially young ones

trying out their swimming skills
for the first time.

But not all seals
are penguin predators.

The crab-eating seal eats krill,

unlike what its name implies.

They have
a much more seal-like look to them

and they are the most common mammal
in these frigid waters.

At nearly 16 million individuals,

they are the most numerous
wild carnivore on earth.

After pulling out of Port Lockroy,

our ship's destination
is through one of the most famous

and beautiful channels
in the Antarctic -

the Lemaire.

This is a scenic wonder as mountains
and glaciers tower over the vessel.

Giant icebergs
fill the narrow waterway,

making it seem like
a winter wonderland.

Ice is one of the most striking
features of Antarctica.

It is literally everywhere.

But the icebergs in the water,
well, that's another story.

Probably the best-known activity
in Antarctica

is to get out on land
and walk among the penguins,

but it can be equally as rewarding
to get in a Zodiac

and tour around the ice.

It gives you a chance to learn how
to read the history of the icebergs.

By looking carefully at an iceberg,

you can actually understand where it
has been and what it has experienced.

For instance, blue lines
show the previous watermarks,

indicating how recent
the iceberg was formed.

Icebergs often turn and flip
as they melt and their weight shifts.

A dimpling, often referred to
as golf ball effect,

is created on these ice surfaces
that were once underwater,

but it is probably the colour of
the bergs that make them so striking.

The deep, almost turquoise, blues

are an awe factor
for even the most seasoned traveller.

It is the density of this glacier
ice, created under huge pressure,

that only allows the blue wavelengths
to be reflected and seen by us.

After some time,
oxygen begins to penetrate the ice,

and it will turn the expected white
we associate with snow and ice.

And if you want to see ice, there is
no better place than the Pleneau Bay,

just off the Antarctic Peninsula.

In this area, there is a small colony
of chinstrap penguins

inside the larger gentoo colony.

Chinstrap penguins
are smaller than the gentoo.

They are easy to identify
because they have,

you guessed it, a distinctive
chinstrap marking below their bill.

It was at this mixed colony

that I had a chance to talk to
a researcher from Oxford University

that Quark allows to use the ship
as his roving lab.

The point is to monitor
a loss of penguin colonies

to work out
when they turn up to breed

and the reproductive success
of each colony.

The reason we're trying to do that
on a bigger scale

is that until now, there's been
very few colonies monitored,

which means it's anecdotal.

If you monitor
lots and lots of colonies,

then you get an understanding
of the local variation

and the different threats,
you can tease apart.

We're talking about a lot of cameras
per...on individual colonies.

So we want to know how gentoo
penguins are doing in terms of

their...their survival
and reproductive success,

versus chinstrap penguins,

at lots of different areas
around the Antarctic Peninsula.

We have about 75 cameras

in the Antarctic Peninsula
and outlying islands,

and those are
on three different species,

so gentoos, chinstraps and Adelies,

and they take a picture every hour
for the whole year.

BILL BALL: Tom Hart,

one of the world's experts
on these penguin colonies,

used the camera traps
as the basis for his research.

With so many cameras
taking pictures every hour,

he generated way too much data
for his team to analyse.

So he used citizen scientists,
people like you and me,

to count the penguins
and record their activities.

Wildlife projects around the world
continue to use civilians

to help further
much-needed conservation research.

You know how I said
I like to get up high

and get a panorama view of an area?

Well, this is another case of that.

But here also, I get a chance
to learn about a French expedition

that wintered over in this very bay.

In 1904, the French exploration team
led by Charcot

anchored off this island
and spent the winter

in these
unbearably cold temperatures.

Their goal
was to map Antarctica for France.

I love the Antarctic,
and I love adventure,

but these early explorers were way
more adventurous than I can imagine.

The greats' names,
Shackleton, Scott, Amundsen,

are still heroes to anyone that dares
to visit this inhospitable land.

I think going with
Quark's expedition ship

is plenty daring for me.

Talking about daring,
we cruise back north

to one of the most misnamed places
on earth -

Paradise Harbour.

Don't get me wrong,
the scenery is beautiful,

but it is as foreboding
as anywhere down here,

with giant glaciers
covering the land,

and the waterways are clogged
with floating ice.

The name actually is from
the whaling days,

where huge factory ships,
that processed the whales,

would anchor in these calm waters.

So it was a paradise for the whalers,

uh, but not so much for the whales.

It doesn't take long, though,

before we find ourselves
in a bit of trouble.

We've drifted into an area
of icefloes, not just here or there

but an absolute sheet
of moving ice pieces all around us.

Suddenly, right in the middle
of a torrent of ice,

our motor sputters and then stalls.

It doesn't take long before we find
ourselves in a bit of trouble.

We've drifted into an area
of icefloes, not just here or there

but an absolute sheet
of moving ice pieces all around us.

Suddenly, right in the middle
of a torrent of ice,

our motor sputters and then stalls.

Our Zodiac skipper, Tyra, is quick
and gets the motor up again.

Slowly, we make our way through
the mazes of frozen white obstacles

until, finally, open water.

We made it.

There was a couple of moments there,
I wasn't sure what was gonna happen.

We were stalling out in the ice
in there.

We were kind of like
a giant martini without the vodka.

Now it's back to our
original objective, shags and seals.

And luck would have it
we spot two Weddell seals onshore.

Unlike the more common
and smaller crab-eater,

Weddells haul out on land,
not icebergs.

It would have been nice
if they were doing something -

this is television, not a magazine -

but we'll take what nature gives us.

Our last stop
is the colourful cliffs of the bay,

where the blue-eyed shag nest.

I like to call them flying penguins

because their colouration
is so similar.

A member of the cormorant family,

they dive after cold-water fish
along these painted cliffs,

which provide
predator-free nesting sites.

The unusual hues of the cliffs
are lichen and mosses

that survive
in these harsh conditions.

Combine that with the greenish-blue
vein of exposed copper ore

and you have the most brilliant
landscapes of the peninsula.

From here, we had one last stop
before the Antarctic Convergence,

the area
where temperatures drop quickly,

causing the penguin's chief food,
the krill, to explode in numbers.

A part of the South Shetland chain,

Deceptive Island is unique
in many ways.

It is a volcanic caldera that has
erupted as recently as the 1970s.

One end of the island
still has thermal features

like you would find in Yellowstone,

but what is particularly deceptive
is the interior.

Instead of land,
like on most islands,

it's filled with water.

In fact, it is a giant ring
with one break in it,

with the centre of calm sea water.

It was that calmness
that made it particularly well-suited

as a whaling station.

Remnants, including the tanks
that held the whale oil,

and a few of the buildings,

still remain
along the narrow shoreline.

Antarctic whaling peaked
in the early 1900s

with mostly English whaling fleets
working these waters.

The number of whales taken
were in the hundreds of thousands.

These historic structures
are a reminder of a brutal era

not so long past.

Today, whales are once again
attracting ships,

but this time with cameras,
not harpoons.

Antarctica is a world unto itself.

It's a pristine habitat,
a living laboratory,

and proof that all nations
can work together peacefully

if only they choose.

It is our duty and right to keep
our elected representatives focused

on protecting this wilderness
from exploitation, weapons,

pollution
and the vagaries of politics

that so infiltrates
the rest of the world.

Antarctica has no native people
to speak for it,

yet we are all citizens
of this last refuge on earth.

Captions by Red Bee Media
(c) SBS Australia 2023