REGIONAL- Steve Abrahamson, of Tower, is an avid traveler, but with help and a little prodding from his even more adventurous daughter and son-in-law, he recently completed a bucket list trip to Antarctica.
Nova (Abrahamson) and her husband John Nieuwenhuis had put together plans for a group of friends and family members to travel to the coldest continent back in 2020, but those plans were waylaid by COVID-19. But this year, the couple along with Steve and a friend of John’s made the 12-day trip. For John, it marked a particular milestone as he has now visited all seven of the Earth’s continents.
The traveling group spent two days in Argentina, prior to the Antarctic trip, hiking in national parks in the southern part of that country. Then they boarded a small, 166-passenger boat, to cross the infamous Drake’s passage, and later spent seven days exploring the Antarctic peninsula.
“We saw three types of penguins, humpback whales, elephant seals, Weddell seals, and orcas,” said Nova. She said she caught the travel bug from her father Steve, who has done a lot of overseas travel, but nothing quite as adventurous as their latest journey.
For Steve, it was a chance to scratch a life-long interest in polar exploration. “I’ve always been a fan of the heroic age of exploration down there,” he said. “I always had a dream of getting down to Antarctica but I never thought I would.” But he said Nova and John are excellent planners, so he was excited to be able to be a part of their adventure.
The trip was physically active, Steve said, with many excursions on shore once they reached the Antarctic Peninsula.
The only downside to the trip was the rough weather traveling on the boat back to Argentina.
Traveling through Drake’s passage can be rough, he said, and on the trip back, it lived up to its reputation. “I spent two days flat on my back on my bunk, seasick!” said Abrahamson. “I didn’t eat anything for over two days.”
But the trip, overall, was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, he said.
“The natural beauty was amazing. The icebergs themselves, they were so massive. The penguin colonies. We got to kayak among icebergs and see as pieces of the iceberg calve off underwater and then pop up in the ocean. The colors, all greens and blues, were so beautiful.”
The trip also included a mountaineering experience, something Steve, as one of the older travelers on the tour, was a little apprehensive about. But once he was up high on the side of a mountain, the view was something he will never forget. The only sounds, he said, were from icebergs calving nearby.
In the evenings, the tour hosted educational talks about biology, geology, and the environmental issues facing the arctic regions.
One night, along the front deck of the ship, Steve watched as an iceberg about one-third the size of their ship came closer and closer. He assumed the ship’s crew knew it was nearby. But then the iceberg hit the side of the ship and the crew came running out.
The ship was in no danger it turns out, and the ship was quickly pushed away from the iceberg.
Despite Antarctica’s reputation for brutal cold, late December is near the summer solstice and the weather was relatively mild, mostly in the 20s, warmer than the weather back home in Tower that week.
One of the days on the trip, Nova, John, and Asa took a true polar plunge. Steve said he does try to swim wherever he is traveling, but on that day, he wasn’t feeling well enough to try it out.
For his next adventure, Steve said he is looking at some trips to the Arctic, perhaps to see narwhals and camp out on the Arctic ice sheet.
Nova and John are continuing to travel this year. Since they both have jobs where they can work remotely, they have taken advantage of the work-from-home experience. Right after returning from Antarctica, they packed up their family, including three young children ages one to five, and headed to Costa Rica, where they will work for the next two months, while they and their kids get to enjoy the tropical climate.