Category: Stories & Inspiration

Nature documentaries showcasing Antarctica’s wildlife have often played a key role in inspiring people to fall in love with the White Continent. In recent years, few sequences have amazed viewers as much as the dramatic behaviour of pack ice killer whales, shown in the BBC’s Frozen Planet and Frozen Planet II series hunting seals by […]

Every April 24, we celebrate Antarctic Ambassadors Day, which is an opportunity to celebrate one of the most extraordinary places on our planet – as well as inspiring people to take steps towards protecting a destination where environmental changes can impact us all. To learn more, we spoke to Steve Jones, Chair of IAATO’s Antarctic […]

We’ve always known that going to Antarctica would be the trip of a lifetime, but for some of our travellers it’s even more special than that. At Swoop, we love helping people who want to get married in Antarctica, and recently, we helped Trevor and Madeleine from Colorado to make their dreams of a polar […]

It’s the most famous knock on the door in polar history. On 20 May 1916, Ernest Shackleton banged on the door of the Manager’s Villa in Stromness whaling station on South Georgia and announced to the surprised occupant that he had lost his ship.  Together with Frank Worsley and Tom Crean, he had just marched […]

If there’s one thing that can be agreed on about the polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, it’s that he was a great inspirer of men. In the story of his ship Endurance, which sank at the start of his attempt to cross Antarctica, it can often feel like he saved his men from certain disaster […]

The big stories of Antarctic exploration tend to come in two main flavours: either a race to the South Pole, or a desperate survival story after a ship sinks after being in the ice. Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen, we’re looking at you. But no one has done more to change that popular perception in recent […]

For many people, Antarctica is the ultimate travel destination, with stepping foot on the White Continent the culmination of a life-long dream. But for others, that first step is just one in a long series of marches that can take you all the way to the South Pole and beyond. Preet Chandi MBE – or […]

Antarctica is home to some of the most charismatic wildlife on Earth. Penguins by the thousand, humpback whales and orcas – these are the animals that compel people to travel all the way to the end of the Earth to see. But what about the life that’s normally hidden from view? At Swoop, we always […]