I am lucky enough to be able to say I have been to Antarctica… Twice.

It sounds too good to be true – even to myself.

My two visits were very different but I will never forget the first time I set eyes on this magnificent continent.

This first visit was with my mother – we were on a cruise ship. Not many big ships get that far south but Holland America’s ‘Zaandam’ is one of the few bigger ships that make the journey. And it is a really, really spectacular journey.

Our journey south se set off from Ushuaia and we were heading straight into a storm… The Drakes Passage is known to be notoriously bad on a ‘good’ day so it was safe to say moving head-first into a storm was not sounding overly appealing to those who are known to suffer from seasickness (AKA me).

The Captain made the decision to anchor for 20 hours to ensure a safer sail to the icy continent… But then a passenger had to be emergency evacuated (as often happens on floating retirement homes cruise ships). So we were headed back to Ushuaia, dropped off the sick guy (onto a procarious-looking rescue boat) and were setting sail to the very South. We were on our way.

It was a rough couple of days. The Drakes Passage was everything I had dreaded it would be. Every item that was unsecured were falling from shelves. Things were rolling across the room and my stomach was doing acrobatics.

Our ship was big and fast so crossed the Drake in what seemed to be record time. And soon we had our first iceberg sightings. I had seen icebergs before but Antarctic icebergs are in a league of their own.

Mum and I were like children in a candy store – we ran out on deck, and even though it was extremely cold, (especially for two ladies who had been hanging out in the desert only a week beforehand), but we ran around like crazy – saying ‘wow’ and ‘how amazing’ far too many times.

But let’s just stop for a second… Antarctica is a big continent. So where exactly were we?

Well the continent of Antarctica kind of has this pointy finger that looks like a rude hand gesture from certain angles… It is formally known as the ‘Antarctica Peninsula’. And that was where our Antarctic journey was taking place.

Our first stop was Palmer station – one of the three US bases on the continent. Palmer is staffed year round and accommodates up to 46 people in summer but drops to around 15-20 people over winter. The station as named after Nathaniel B. Palmer – who is recognised as the first American to ever see Antarctica. Majority of the research conducted at Palmer revolves around marine biology. We were lucky enough to be able to get six of the staff members from Palmer on board our ship to give a lecture and answer some questions about life on the coldest continent.

Their zodiacs pulled up to The Zaandam and the station workers hopped on board – which seemed to be a little holiday for them after months isolated in Antarctica. The talk was very interesting but soon we were back on deck marvelling at more ice.

Later that day we headed through the Neumeyer Channel, a 26km long channel, 2.4km wide that separates Anvers Island from Wince Island and Doumer Island, in the Palmer Archipelago. The channel is a magnificent maze with majestic cliffs towering from both sides. The afternoon was overcast but the scenic channel would continue to amaze us through the misty haze.

We started to spot more and more wildlife, from the gigantic albatross swooping around us to the seals that casually floated by on icebergs – there was not a direction that failed to take our breaths away, and it was only day 1.

That afternoon we headed through the Lemaire Channel, a strait off Antarctica, between Kiev Peninsula in the mainland’s Graham Land and Booth Island. The Lemaire Channel is Nnicknamed “Kodak Gap” bfor good reason. It is one of the top tourist destinations in Antarctica with steep cliffs hem in the iceberg-filled passage, which is 11 km long and just 1,600 metres wide at its narrowest point.

It was first seen by the German expedition of 1873-74, but not traversed until December 1898, when the Belgica of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition passed through. Expedition leader Adrien de Gerlache named it for Charles Lemaire (1863-1925), a Belgian explorer of the Congo.

Icebergs are known to sometimes fill the channel, so we weren’t sure whether we would be making it the entire way through or obligingly backtracking. But as our captain announced we had made it all the way through there was a cheer on deck on board the Zaandam.

As the day drew to an end we watched the sunset reflect on the icebergs and went to bed dreaming of another magical day in Antarctica… (And just so you know – our dreams came true)