The spirit of Scott

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10 April 2012

I take a shovel and dig out a body-sized rectangle in the snow. Then, with all the satisfaction of a boy building a sand castle, I build a wall around the trench to provide shelter from the cold Antarctic wind.

This, lined with a sleeping bag and bivvy bag, will be my bed for the night. Or, as it's more commonly called, my "snow grave", though that term seems morbid given the timing of my trip.

I'm in Antarctica exactly 100 years on from British explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott's doomed final expedition. Scott and his team set out at the end of 1911 to become the first people to reach the South Pole. But when they reached their target, on January 17, 1912, they discovered Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had beaten them by five weeks.

On the journey back out, everything that could go wrong did: poor weather, injuries, frostbite, starvation, exhaustion. Gradually, the explorers died in the ice and snow.

Despite coming second to Amundsen, Scott's Antarctic mission is remembered for the heroic bravery with which they faced defeat and death.

"I am just going outside and may be some time," injured expedition member Oates famously said before walking out to his death to give the rest of the team a stronger chance of survival.

"We have been to the Pole and we shall die like gentlemen," wrote Scott himself, near the end. There are no such hardships on our voyage, 100 years later.

Instead, at the end of each day, we have comfy cabins on board the converted Russian research vessel Academik Ioffe, four-course meals, including plenty of seafood, hot showers and a bar crowded each night with international travellers from around 20 countries: twitchers, photographers, students, or those ticking off their seventh continent. It's the "end of the world" landscape and incredible wildlife that draws people now, rather than a race to conquer the Pole.

Even before we arrived, sailing out from Ushuaia - "the most southerly city in the world" - in Argentina, across the seasickness-inducing Drake Passage, a call goes out over the ship's speakers that a humpback whale has been spotted off the bow.

By the time we've made it on deck, there's not one but about 50 humpbacks, including calves, out on the great expanse of ocean. Some breach and flop into the water, others raise their massive flukes and dive, while yet more glide through the sea spitting water from their blowholes.

"We'll maybe never in our lifetime see again what we saw today," says expedition leader Chad Gaetz. As we watch, gentoo penguins torpedo through the water and a pair of fur seals bob on the waves.

Arriving in Antarctica, we motor out in Zodiac rafts to explore giant "sculptures" of blue-white ice, each different in size and form.

Around an Argentine research station, we see three kinds of penguins: Gentoos, Chinstraps and Adélies. Weddell seals laze out on the shore.

After lunch, a call goes out on the ship that 14 orca (killer) whales are out in the water.

We land on Wiencke Island, marching up the snow-covered hillside where hundreds of gentoo penguins have made their homes in scattered rookeries. As we don't hunt them, they don't mind us at all as they go about their business, sitting on eggs or waddling along "penguin highways" up the mountainside.

Our trek is led by Sunniva Sorby, a Norwegian- American explorer who, in 1992-3, was part of the first all-female team to walk to the South Pole without dogs or vehicles.

On a 67-day test of endurance, Sorby suffered physical and mental exhaustion, a sprained ankle, bronchitis, blisters, hypothermia and more - all of which gives her an insight into what Scott's team went through.

"I have a lot of empathy around what was not said or written about," she tells me. "We judge so much by what people did: distance, latitude and longitude, what was discovered, what was explored I feel a deep connection to the suffering they experienced."

We return to Wiencke Island that night to camp. Before bed, a group of us watch the sky turn pink across the charcoal-grey waters of Dorian Bay, clouds parting to reveal massive peaks surrounding us.

My snow grave keeps me, if not warm, sheltered through the night and sleeping out on the Antarctic snow is one of the most memorable parts of the trip.

But there are plenty of others. The following day, we climb the steep Coughtrey Peninsula for views out across Paradise Harbour.

Rather than a slow hike down, we make an icy run and "sledge" quickly down the slopes on our backs, crashing into deep snow at the base.

Another excursion around Andvord Bay takes us among electric blue arches and a massive ice "castle". We see both humpback and minke whales; they dive, then reappear among ice chunks in the distance.

Two gentoo penguins stand on a floating raft of ice. Nearby, a beautiful sleek leopard seal suns itself on an iceflow; she seems so content and even looks to be grinning. After a barbecue on the ship's deck with reggae music, food sizzling and views of icebergs, pristine mountains and satin-smooth banks of snow, we spend the afternoon on Cuverville Island.

There's nothing more stressful to do here than sit on a rock and watch little gangs of penguins return from feeding out at sea, flopping out of waves onto the shore.

There's sledging again on the hills overlooking Orne Harbour, the penguins - so common, we've become complacent - taking second place to hiking up to the ridge and sliding headfirst down speedy icy runs.

Christmas Day is spent exploring an old whaling station on Deception Island, before taking the Polar Plunge: more than half of the ship's 100 travellers, young and old, strip off outer layers and run into the extremely cold sea for as long as we can bear, before running back onto shore, exhilarated and laughing.

There's a melancholy mood on Half Moon Island, our last trip. We see a lone yellow-haired Macaroni penguin, two Chinstraps feeding their shivering, finger puppet-sized chicks, and a Weddell seal flopped on the rocky beach.

But afterwards, we each go off and find a quiet spot in which to pause and reflect on the things that will stay with us from the white continent, whether the purity of the landscape, a wildlife encounter, or just remembering a long-forgotten childish side that likes to play in the snow.

British Airways flies daily from London Heathrow to Buenos Aires, returns from £728.

Details: Antarctica

British Airways flies daily from London Heathrow to Buenos Aires, returns from £728. ba.com

Wildwings, operated by One Ocean Expeditions, has 10-night trips from £7,629pp, full board, including return flights to Buenos Aires and on to Ushuaia and a night's B&B in Ushuaia. wildwings.co.uk

Los Cauquenes Resort in Ushuaia has doubles from £245 B&B. loscauquenes.com

The Natural History Museum exhibition, Scott's Last Expedition, runs from January 20 to September 2, 2012. nhm.ac.uk/scott

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