One of the really impressive features of Antarctica is the silence. If you can’t hear your ship anymore and you don’t make any sounds yourself, there are no human made sounds at all. For some people this can be really scary. With all the sounds back home, we’re not used to this complete silence anymore. Others, like me, really love it.

Oceanwide Expeditions, the organisation I guide for, offers special basecamp cruises where guests have the opportunity to go camping or kayaking, two activities that are really good for experiencing this silence. Last season one of the guests woke up thinking she was deaf, only to realise everything was fine, there were just no sounds around her…