Travel Notes | The Farthest South—Antarctica (3)-Ice Paradise

If I'm busy or lazy, I'll stop writing for three or four days. If I don't continue writing, it will be unfinished. Fortunately, looking through the photos from four months ago, I can still regain some of my feelings at that time.

The rough Drake Strait is almost 5 as wide as the Taiwan Strait. It took us 80 more than that before we finally entered the Antarctic waters. A small game was organized on the boat for everyone to guess the time " encountered the first iceberg " . The prize was an exquisite sunscreen magic neck collar, which we went with. My friend guessed right and received the prize that night.

Starting at four o'clock in the morning, small ice floes began to appear around the ship. Soon, tall snowy mountains began to appear on the left side of the channel. As the snowy mountains continued to flash, the ice floes on the sea gradually increased and became larger and larger.

It's like a world has suddenly changed here. The water is calm, snow-capped mountains, glaciers, ice floes, and wilderness come into view one by one. People seem to have come to a quiet fairy tale world. The air is clear, there is the ocean nearby, and snow peaks in the distance. The frozen earth is covered in golden light. We walk by huge icebergs, and whales occasionally reveal their tails.

In summer, as the temperature rises, a large number of icebergs collapse. Every year, more than 200,000 pieces of ice floes drift from Antarctica to the north, forming a spectacular army of ice floes.

The whale swings its tail, fleeting

A bird on the ice

ice cube falling into water

98% of the Antarctic continent is covered with snow all year round. The ice cover covers an area of ​​2 million square kilometers and has an average thickness of 2,000-2,500 meters. Its fresh water reserves account for 90% of the world's total fresh water, which is all in the form of ice.

Under the sun's rays, near the sea surface or in places with independent holes, the whole body is revealed with a gradient of blue. This blue is very dazzling against the backdrop of snow-capped mountains and sea surface.

The largest ice shelf in Antarctica covers an area of ​​500,000 square kilometers, which is equivalent to the area of ​​France. Imagine a frozen France slowly floating on an ice shelf every year. What a spectacular scene it is.

Antarctica includes the Antarctic continent and its surrounding islands, as well as continental margin ice. It is surrounded by the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans. Antarctica accounts for one-tenth of the total land area of ​​the earth, which is larger than the area of ​​China and India. The entire territory is a large plateau with an average altitude of 2350 meters, making it the continent with the highest average altitude in the world. Our Tibetan Plateau condescends to second place.

Groups of clouds and mist surround the ice peaks, making it look like a fairyland. As far as the eye can see, the sky and the earth merge into one. These shocking scenes have not changed since Antarctica was discovered by humans.

Intoxicating blue ice and snow world

Penguin enters water

crystal clear blue ice

whale. It is said that there used to be a huge number of whales in Antarctica, and they could jump from one island to another on their backs. The whaling industry here was once prosperous, but now it is no longer what it used to be, and only occasional traces of whales are found.

The expedition team picked up a piece of ice that has been frozen for thousands of years. Note that there are no air bubbles. According to reports, when the ice cubes are continuously squeezed by force, the bubbles inside will slowly overflow, and the ice cubes will become very pure. The longer the ice cubes are, the bluer the color will be.