{"id":499,"date":"2015-03-17T14:54:56","date_gmt":"2015-03-17T14:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.swoop-antarctica.com\/?p=499"},"modified":"2020-04-02T20:58:19","modified_gmt":"2020-04-02T19:58:19","slug":"matts-peninsula-cruise-kayaking-camping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swoop-antarctica.com\/blog\/matts-peninsula-cruise-kayaking-camping\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt&#8217;s Peninsula Cruise: Kayaking &#038; Camping"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Matt returned in December 2014 from his 12-day <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swoop-antarctica.com\/antarctic-peninsula\/\">Peninsula Voyage<\/a>, sailing with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swoop-antarctica.com\/sea-explorer\/\">Sea Explorer<\/a>.&nbsp; Here he tells us about his experience in Antarctica, which included exploring the coastline by kayak and camping overnight beneath the mid-night sun.<\/p>\n<p><b>What were the highlights of your trip?<\/b><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_501\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-501\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-501\" alt=\"Matt &amp; co.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.swoop-antarctica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Matt-Watson-Friends-300x225.jpeg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.swoop-antarctica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Matt-Watson-Friends-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.swoop-antarctica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Matt-Watson-Friends.jpeg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-501\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Matt &amp; co.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><i>The<\/i> highlight of the trip is a hard one.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swoop-antarctica.com\/kayaking-antarctica\/\">Kayaking<\/a> was probably my favourite moment.&nbsp; Paddling in the quiet and hearing the calving of ice, or watching an ice berg roll is something that you can only appreciate by being there.&nbsp; Looking at photos is only 10% of what it\u2019s like to experience it for yourself.<\/p>\n<p>But being in the volcanic caldera on Deception Island was amazing.&nbsp; The scenery is so breathtaking that being able to get so close to the ice was something I\u2019ll never forget. The experience exceeded my expectations.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swoop-antarctica.com\/camping-antarctica\/\">Camping<\/a> was tough. &nbsp;I chose not to tent, rather I dug a hole to sleep in.&nbsp; I didn\u2019t sleep much because of the excitement, daylight and cold!&nbsp; The highlight was at 2am when a penguin came up to my \u201cgrave\u201d and had a look in!&nbsp; I got some cool Gopro footage which my kids love.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swoop-antarctica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Matt-Watson-Bivvy-Bag-Camping.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-500\" alt=\"Matt in his &quot;grave&quot;, wrapped up in his special bivvy bag.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.swoop-antarctica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Matt-Watson-Bivvy-Bag-Camping.jpeg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>To add on to those experiences we got zodiac trips and shore excursions \u2026it was full on!&nbsp; The weather was fantastic which enabled us to get out each day and be active.<\/p>\n<p><b>What did you think of your vessel?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The cabin was superb, and the public spaces on board were warm and clean.&nbsp; You couldn\u2019t fault the food, and the menu was always different.&nbsp; The bar was open too long!!! &nbsp;My $700 bar bill proved that&#8230; &nbsp;We had heaps of fun each night discussing the day\u2019s experiences and meeting the other travelers \u2026and then some dancing into the wee hours.<\/p>\n<p><b>And the guides?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The seminars were great:&nbsp; very informative, as well as giving you something to do when you\u2019re stuck on the boat.&nbsp; We had great guides with us \u2013 they genuinely seemed excited about what we were about to share together.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a trip and a boat that I would recommend to anyone wanting to experience the wonders of the Antarctic Peninsula.<\/p>\n<p><b>How would you sum up your experience?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>You can\u2019t prepare for how you will feel down on the 7th continent and how exhilarating it is to do these activities.&nbsp; It really is a trip of a lifetime.&nbsp; Antarctica was my final continent.&nbsp; The only other experience I\u2019ve had like it was going to North Korea in 2013:&nbsp; the entire time you have your mouth wide open.&nbsp; It made me feel like a school kid again, just in awe of where I was and what I was doing.<\/p>\n<p><b>And Swoop?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>You guys were great to deal with!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Matt returned in December 2014 from his 12-day Peninsula Voyage, sailing with the Sea Explorer.&nbsp; Here he tells us about his experience in Antarctica, which included exploring the coastline by kayak and camping overnight beneath the mid-night sun. What were the highlights of your trip? The highlight of the trip is a hard one. Kayaking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,11,19,25,26,42],"class_list":["post-499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews-2","tag-activities","tag-antarctic-peninsula","tag-camping","tag-kayaking","tag-landscapes","tag-sea-explorer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.9.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Matt&#039;s Peninsula Cruise: Kayaking &amp; Camping - Swoop Antarctica Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swoop-antarctica.com\/blog\/matts-peninsula-cruise-kayaking-camping\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matt&#039;s Peninsula Cruise: Kayaking &amp; Camping - Swoop Antarctica Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Matt returned in December 2014 from his 12-day Peninsula Voyage, sailing with the Sea Explorer.&nbsp; Here he tells us about his experience in Antarctica, which included exploring the coastline by kayak and camping overnight beneath the mid-night sun. 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