Destination #13: ANTARCTICA!

Ok, so at this point, we've been to a bunch of places all around the world. So what's next?


Time for a SPECIAL TRIP! We're heading down south! WAAAAAAY SOUTH!!! It's the Greg and Kristy's Travel Blog Antarctica Adventure!

As if you didn't know where Antarctica is, here it is on a globe:


Well before we all know the fun of learning about Antarctica is in the photo and video section, but lets take a second to cover some of the basics.

So Antarctica is in fact a continent, meaning its a solid piece of land, however roughly 98% of it is covered in ice, which averages about 1 mile thick! Antarctica is about 5.4 million square miles, has the highest average elevation of all the continents, and sees such small amounts of precipitation that the interior is technically the largest desert in the world. There are no permanent human residents and since the 1959 signing of the Antarctic Treaty, Antarctica has been agreed to be a military/industry free place with participation by 45 countries in scientific research. The United States does have a pretty good research program called the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) that has a few stations including one at the South Pole!

Enough talk right? Some of the coolest pictures I found amongst the thousands you can find online:








Now some videos! First up, a neat montage of time lapse!

Killer Whales!!!!

Antarctica in 5 minutes:

Global Warming message from an Antarctic Photographer:


Ok, of course all the science geeks in Antarctica have us more than covered for webcams, so here are some to have a look. From the USAP. From Australia Antarctic Division. PenguinCam! South Pole Webcam! RRS Ernest Shackleton Research Ship Webcam!

Enough with the webcams! But one last thing though before we go. This is exciting news people! Happening this year! Belgium is currently building the Princess Elisabeth Polar Science Station, the FIRST EVER ZERO-EMISSIONS research base in Antarctica! It will run solely on solar and wind energy! Check out the website for some awesome photos and videos. What a neat project!

That will do it for this adventure though, thanks for coming down folks!