CRUISE DIARY THE CONNOISSEUR

Intrepid explorer and seasoned cruise fan Nick Redman takes us inside the trip of a lifetime

Mmmm, this isn’t how I thought a voyage to Antarctica would be. Two days out of Ushuaia – Argentina’s southernmost “town at the end of the world” – I’m getting very used, thank you, to the high life on the high seas.

I’ve consumed free-flowing champagne, delectable millefeuilles and gourmet main courses including roasted turkey served with exquisitely silky dauphinoise potatoes, drizzled with jus by the head chef himself.

Here, aboard Ponant’s French expedition cruise ship Le Boréal, it’s hard for us 200-plus guests to choose between wedges of exquisite brie and chilled white burgundy or petits-fours and cognac as the ocean foams outside. (Of course everyone tends to do both.)

It’s hard to believe that, a little over a century ago, Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton and the crew of the Endurance had to live on the blubber of seals, bludgeoned with axes, as the ship drifted for ten months, trapped in pack ice.

I’ve been on sufficient cruises in my time to call myself a firm believer: the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, even the Baltic and Black seas, as well as the South Pacific. But Antarctica? Another country, figuratively and literally. Maybe my most mind-expanding travel experience ever.