Years ago on a documentary, Michael Palin landed on Cape Horn in Chile. This small island is the southernmost tip of realistic liveable land on planet earth. All that lies south is the ice cold continent of Antarctica. I was off to Cape Horn![]
It's owned by Chile, not Argentina and forms the southern point of the island area known as Tierra Del Fuego. I love the name actually - CAPE HORN. It has a certain inspired ring to it. I was hell bent on seeing it for real, and selfishly I wanted to step foot on it.
it's expensive to visit the Cape of Horn. For some reason Michael Palin didn't pay for it - it would all have been covered by a generous BBC budget for the purpose of filming. My trip was on a much lower budget and I managed to backpack my way to Antarctica - the trip to visit the Horn, even just to see it on the way back was such a bonus. However the Chilean marine authorities don't let ships close to it - they issue a proximity maximum of around 12 - 13 miles except in special circumstances.
We left Argentina behind for Antarctica sailing on the MS Expedition which was built up in Denmakr, had been registered in Africa at Liberia and was now making these regular trips down to the white continent. Everyone on the ship was asleep (except the crew) the night we headed south on the dreaded Drake Passage, so getting up close to Cape Horn wasn't happening - we were much too far east for that anyway and we had one intention - arriving in Antarctica[]
Russell and I had talked about whether or not we would see Cape Horn on the way back. Indeed the day before they had shown us a Cape Horn documentary which had us wondering. I asked a few of the leaders and they were tight lipped about it.
But it became obvious that the plan was to change direction so we could catch a glimpse of the horn. I noticed that we were making fast progress (there was a live map on board the boat near the reception, where we could all see where we had been and where we were going) and in fact had suddenly changed direction to head north west rather than directly north, following our departure from Elephant Island.
On the evening of our final ascent up the Drake Passage the visit to view Cape Horn was finally confirmed by the crew amid a joyous response. We were told at the recap of the day and the briefing session that we would indeed be sailing close to Cape Horn for a view at 5am the next morning.
However it was also the last night on board the ship to celebrate the epic journey to Antarctica so we had all been in the onboard bar celebrating and toasting to the incredible trip. It was almost 3 am when I got to bed and that meant only a couple of hours sleep before the dream arrival at the horn!
After 2 hours sleep the alarms went off and I was up waiting to see Cape Horn, we assembled on deck and it was by around 6.30 am that we finally got close to Cape Horn - an incredibly exciting moment for all concerned!
By 7am there it was and we all gasped as we saw it - this island tip ahead of us was indeed Cape Horn. Cheers roared louder when the captain then announced that the seas were not as rough as normal and we were being allowed to get beyond the normal 12 mile barrier and see Cape Horn close up.
Everyone gathered on the very top deck laden with cameras and warm clothes. It was a joy just staring out at this remote piece of land on the south tip of Chile knowing we had seen the end of the civilised world. We didn't land on it, but we saw it.
It's owned by Chile, not Argentina and forms the southern point of the island area known as Tierra Del Fuego. I love the name actually - CAPE HORN. It has a certain inspired ring to it. I was hell bent on seeing it for real, and selfishly I wanted to step foot on it.
it's expensive to visit the Cape of Horn. For some reason Michael Palin didn't pay for it - it would all have been covered by a generous BBC budget for the purpose of filming. My trip was on a much lower budget and I managed to backpack my way to Antarctica - the trip to visit the Horn, even just to see it on the way back was such a bonus. However the Chilean marine authorities don't let ships close to it - they issue a proximity maximum of around 12 - 13 miles except in special circumstances.
We left Argentina behind for Antarctica sailing on the MS Expedition which was built up in Denmakr, had been registered in Africa at Liberia and was now making these regular trips down to the white continent. Everyone on the ship was asleep (except the crew) the night we headed south on the dreaded Drake Passage, so getting up close to Cape Horn wasn't happening - we were much too far east for that anyway and we had one intention - arriving in Antarctica[]
Russell and I had talked about whether or not we would see Cape Horn on the way back. Indeed the day before they had shown us a Cape Horn documentary which had us wondering. I asked a few of the leaders and they were tight lipped about it.
But it became obvious that the plan was to change direction so we could catch a glimpse of the horn. I noticed that we were making fast progress (there was a live map on board the boat near the reception, where we could all see where we had been and where we were going) and in fact had suddenly changed direction to head north west rather than directly north, following our departure from Elephant Island.
On the evening of our final ascent up the Drake Passage the visit to view Cape Horn was finally confirmed by the crew amid a joyous response. We were told at the recap of the day and the briefing session that we would indeed be sailing close to Cape Horn for a view at 5am the next morning.
However it was also the last night on board the ship to celebrate the epic journey to Antarctica so we had all been in the onboard bar celebrating and toasting to the incredible trip. It was almost 3 am when I got to bed and that meant only a couple of hours sleep before the dream arrival at the horn!
After 2 hours sleep the alarms went off and I was up waiting to see Cape Horn, we assembled on deck and it was by around 6.30 am that we finally got close to Cape Horn - an incredibly exciting moment for all concerned!
By 7am there it was and we all gasped as we saw it - this island tip ahead of us was indeed Cape Horn. Cheers roared louder when the captain then announced that the seas were not as rough as normal and we were being allowed to get beyond the normal 12 mile barrier and see Cape Horn close up.
Everyone gathered on the very top deck laden with cameras and warm clothes. It was a joy just staring out at this remote piece of land on the south tip of Chile knowing we had seen the end of the civilised world. We didn't land on it, but we saw it.
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