by Susan Ellis of Key Life Journeys

It was March 2nd 2008. We ate breakfast on board M/V Polar Star having returned from landing on the continental shores of Antarctica. An island landing was anticipated later that morning but the shore was found to be guarded by a wide jiggling band of icebergs, the wind had strengthened and visibility had deteriorated. No more heroics. We sailed on, heading out into the Southern Ocean to journey back to the South Shetlands and to a land steeped in Sir Ernest Shackleton history, Elephant Island.

For ocean watchers there were birds and we were always on the lookout for whales. There were lectures to attend and in the evenings there were movies or lectures. We were learning about the Shackleton Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1914-16.  The goal was to land in Antarctica and attempt a trans polar crossing to McMurdo Sound on foot. The ship, the Endurance, however never made it to the coast. It became trapped in the moving sea ice of the Weddell Sea - through which we had been sailing. It had sunk and the stranded men camped on the ice with three boats. Finally the ice melted and they could launch the boats sailing in hope of reaching people or supplies. But it was the shore at Cape Valentine on Elephant Island where they made land fall in April 1916, 17 months after they had last walked on solid ground. It was a barren unprotected beach which was not welcoming.


On my cruise with Holland America in 2006 I had sailed past Cape Valentine then guarded by a massive iceberg. From there I had sailed into the fog and would see no further landfall till the Falkland Islands. Elephant Island had for me a haunting countenance. I was excited about returning.

Sir Ernest Shackleton moved his men around the coast from Cape Valentine to a more sheltered spot later called Point Wild. The beach was named for Frank Wild whom Shackleton left in charge of the group of 21 other men who would remain there. Shackleton and 5 others set sail to South Georgia for help for he knew no one would find them on lonely Elephant Island. Shackleton did reach South Georgia, a journey of 800 miles (1,300kms) and on the fourth attempt returned to Point Wild on board the Chilean ship Yelcho to rescue all his men....

We were heading to Point Wild. That afternoon we watched the second half of the 2002 movie starring Kenneth Branagh as Shackleton. In the aft lounge where lectures took place and movies were shown, the central wooden chairs were lashed together. As the ship rolled, they creaked in unison. Never more so had a film come alive!! Sometimes I would sit in the rounded armchairs around the sides of the lounge, listening to lectures. These were hooked to pegs in the floor. Not a tight leash, one could roam on those chairs in a bad swell. We went to bed early that night, the safest place to be on a stormy sea.
 
 
 
 
Next morning, the 3rd March, the clouds lifted from around the towering cliffs, glaciated mountains and huge icebergs that greeted us at Point Wild. The glaciers have receded since the Shackleton era exposing the beach to the elements. Only in our imagination could we see the two upturned boats which provided shelter for the men for 105 days. Our excursion was by Zodiac as the shore was not safe to land on. The area was alive with Chinstrap Penguins and a ferocious Leopard Seal greeted the Zodiacs in turn trying to take a bite out of each one. Leopard Seals mainly live on penguins but have been known to attack humans also.




In a heavy swell we were up close to a glacier, icebergs and the place where the men lived. The only sign of humanity is a monument - the bust of the Chilean tugboat Captain whose ship rescued Shackleton's men. It was erected by the Chileans. Indeed the Captain became a quiet hero, refusing a reward by the British government and in the 1930's became Chile's Consul in Liverpool, at the time one of the greatest sea ports in the world. The tug boat incidentally was built on the banks of the river Clyde in Scotland in 1906. After picking up the survivors she sailed to Punta Arenas and finally to Valparaiso to great fanfare. Again the two parts of my life come together. When on the 2006 cruise I too was in the ports of Punta Arenas and Valparaiso. As we sailed on I would find my path crossing Shackleton's on more than one occasion.








But this day at Point Wild as the sun burnt off the morning mist it was the colour of my world which enthralled me. I was bathed in a light so bright and clear and intense. The freshness of the air and the colours of the water - all the blues to greens one could imagine. The turquoise made me think of tropical islands and palm trees but the close proximity of penguins jumping amongst the rocks refocused the fantasy. Then I was up close and personal to mighty shining icebergs rising high above me as I bobbed about in the Zodiac. Then the booming cannons of calving glaciers, shooting the spray high as the ice dropped into the water. Everything was intense, grander, bigger, clearer, and brighter. It was bewilderingly real - unbelievably real. It was not a matter of saying to oneself "this can't be happening." "Let me take more photos so I can look back on this and show other people." Yes I did take photos but I lived in an Eckhart Tolle Moment. I was not the observer. I was in the scene, being the scene. I did not think the scene. In that moment I finally got it. My memory is of a smile deep down inside, only diminished when the Zodiac turned and I inhaled the motor's fumes. But I absorbed the wonder of the moment and let it resonate with my inner self. If I am really part of the whole or if I, as a hologram, contain the whole in me, I am it. It is not mine, for possession is fulfilling the need of the ego, but I am it. Every last turquoise watery moment, every last glistening icy second, every thunderous crash of ice into water and call of the penguin on the breeze is the universe that I am.

 
We who had port side cabins had been in the first Zodiacs. We returned so that the starboard side passengers could take their turn. On deck the sun shone warmly and I gazed on every side as the ship swung on her anchor.

 
Finally it was time to leave. The M/V Polar Star passed close to offshore icebergs causing the assembled penguins to scamper to higher ground. We left Elephant Island to our stern and I became aware of familiar grey cliffs and a huge grounded iceberg. We left Cape Valentine behind us, in brighter light than I had seen it two years previously.