A GROUP of 15 locals may be enjoying our summer heat after returning from a week in Antarctica last month.
Former Mildura travel agent Kendall Roberts, now based on the Mornington Peninsula near Melbourne, put together the expedition after being inspired by a New Year’s Eve charter flight over the continent in 2021.
She then experienced icy Greenland and remote Patagonia and became determined to take on the seventh continent – preferably with some close friends from her hometown.
She hosted an expressions-of-interest meeting at Stefano’s Restaurant with a representative from expedition company Quark, attended by about 30 people.
Several people signed up on the night, and the group eventually grew to 15.
Last month they found themselves on a ship of 176 people, including 46 Australians, setting off from Argentina across the most treacherous waters in the world, Drake’s Passage, to the Antarctic Peninsula.
The group endured swells of up to five metres for two days, a taste of the dreaded ‘Drake shake’ that Kendall’s father, Ian “Curly Roberts, dubbed the ‘Drake shimmy’.
“On the third day we woke up and it was snowing and we were in Antarctica. It was really spectacular. To get off the ship and see penguins and seals and orcas on the first morning was pretty spectacular,” Ms Roberts said.
Joining Kendall and her father was her partner Luke O’Shannessy and best friend Jeremy Goodieson as well as 11 other Mildurians.
The group spent five days traversing the peninsula coastline, using inflatable boats to get ashore and also explore cruise the coastal waters.
While only 57 per cent of 176 people aboard expedition ship Ultramarine opted for the “polar plunge”, the travel agent was proud 12 of the 15 Mildurians (or 80 per cent) strapped into the harness to experience the -1.5 degrees water.
“I said, ‘we’re country people, we give everything a go’,” she said.
“I’ve done the polar plunge in all three now and I can confirm that Antarctica makes Greenland and Patagonia feel not quite like a bath, but I’ve never gotten out so quick.”
The group endured some horrid weather on the trip but were blessed with sunshine for the last 36 hours.
“Day one and two we had all the elements, day three we woke to find the ship surrounded by thick fog and chunks of ice, day four was forecast for clear and sunny but was more fog and ice,” she said.
“But the sun came out at sunset, 6pm or 7pm, and day five was perfect.”
The final-day blue skies enabled the ship to belatedly launch its two helicopters, offering the travellers an albatrosses’-eyed view of the landscape for 15 minutes.
“We were all on the most incredible high, after having experienced the highs and lows of expedition life,” she said. “To finish it like that was spectacular.”
Ms Roberts said she had similar feelings of remoteness in African safari parks, but this was next level.
“I really do feel like I’ve been to another planet. That’s the only way I can really explain the experience. I feel like I’ve been popped back Earth-side now,” she said.
“That last day to be surrounded by Antarctica and be with some very special people in my life, and to be with others from my hometown, was really special for me.”
Ms Roberts, who still organises for Mildura clients as part of the Mobile Travel Agents group, said despite wind chills and swells the trip was comfortable with spa and sauna, movies, libraries and lectures on the ships.
“They had talks from glaciologists, others on the history and explorers; there’s a lot of knowledge on the ship,” she said.
She said Antarctica expeditions generally cost around $20,000 but can be done for less.
The expedition means the travel agent, who was mentored at Jetset Mildura by Peter Haenen, has ticked off all seven continents, but that isn’t stopping her.
“The Arctic is calling but, next year, I have done the Kimberley by road and I plan to do that by sea,” she said.
