With her first feelings away from her 9-month-old child, until the night before boarding a plane, Ms. Nguyen Phuong Mai (31 years old, Hanoi) also had a moment to think: "Shouldn't we go to the South pole anymore?".
flying more than half a way around the world, a total of nearly 30 hours in the sky, and another 40 hours to reach the starting point to the South pole, having spent 10 days and 9 nights drifting on a zodiac boat and buoy, Ms. Mai has never experienced such a time-consuming trip.
Memorable footsteps
The trip to the extreme of the Vietnamese female tourist will start from November 19 to 28, 2024. However, the lines of memories of those 10 days that appeared in her were still as clear as imprinted.
The large ship took her and the group to locations named: Danco Island, Hunt Island, Damoy Island, Useful Island, Leith Harbor, Portal Point, Harry Island.
However, the schedule was not specific and only the schedule was initially planned to be provided by the agent, because after that, the exploration team had to adjust it to suit the weather conditions as well as the current direction of the ship.
Ms. Mai recalled: Usually, every evening and when the exploration activities end in the morning, the cruise ship slowly moves to the next destination in the plan.
We will have 2 activities a day: Hop and disembark, make landfall on small islands. 10 people will sit on a boat to go to sea, visiting the islands one by one. The Southern wind is extremely cold and gusty".
The routes on the small islands have been stretched out by exploration teams and experts and instructed in advance. Therefore, visitors are forced to follow the instructions and follow.
"The rain is very foaming, just a little slide can cause you to slide into the valley next to it, it is very dangerous. The places that can be reached are the harshest layer of snow to avoid subsidence. However, the road is easily slippery, said the female tourist.
The time Ms. Mai visited was the summer in the South, the average temperature was between -3 and 5 degrees Celsius. A very long day at dawn at 3:30 am, the sun began to set at 10:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Ms. Ngo Thu (36 years old, Hanoi)'s trip to the South in November 2023 occasionally encountered storms and snow. "The temperature on warm sunny days is about 5 degrees Celsius, and on stormy days, the temperature drops to -20, -30 degrees Celsius.
encountering a snowstorm one morning, I dropped my glove for about 2 seconds, but my stiff hands could not move. The snow fell on my face and burned so I had to cover it all the time, Thu said.
The first scene cannot be described in words
Every time I stop on a small island on my journey to explore the South is very memorable. The beauty of nature, in the eyes of the two Vietnamese female tourists, cannot be fully described in words.
Ms. Mai remembers clearly, every time she makes landfall on a small island, she is wow, oi, a in the sight of the great beauty of nature. She did not hesitate to compare this beauty to any other than the landscape, the "reserve" of those who like to move has touched the dream of the Arctic.
The first morning, I sat on a boat to get to the small island for the first time, it was raining heavily. Although she saw the canhuts with her own eyes and was able to hug the floating ice coves, Ms. Mai had to stop and close her eyes and take a deep breath to see if it was as if she was dreaming.
Every morning in the Southern Arctic, she wakes up very early and then runs onto the boat's deck to watch the sunrise, quickly sets up her own camera footage and goes crazy. In the afternoons, while having a bad meal, seeing the train passing through 4 beautiful places, she immediately ran to the boat'smingle to take photos because she was afraid of missing a beautiful moment.
I also remember clearly the last day I made landfall on a small island, my face was suyving because I might not have seen the elephants at the beginning of the season. However, somehow miraculously, the whale floated and I was able to see the fish tail. Regret and satisfaction are hard to put into words, Ms. Mai shared.
Ms. Thu was luckier. Although she did not have any expectations at first, she heard a "singer" while taking careful photos of the scenery on the boat. A few minutes later, she heard that sound again and a very big whale appeared. The tour guide introduced the right humpback whale, about 12 - 16m long and weighing about 30 - 50 tons.
Ms. Thu said: "The things I see in the South not only bring a sense of satisfaction but also make me think a lot about life. The times when the sky is blue and white, I see lovely canhuts walking around, shouting like arguing..., I see them also having emotions like humans".
Before the final day of the trip, the group had the opportunity to go to Half Moon Island, a small island in the South, in snowy weather.
People still have difficulty traveling, let alone the small songboards that keep falling get up and continue. I feel very lucky to be living in more favorable conditions, and tell myself to learn them, tripped and then had to stand up to try to continue, Ms. Thu expressed.
