Special Antarctica Photographic Charter with Paul Goldstein, Mark Carwardine & Chris Packham

Early December is probably Antarctica’s most beautiful time. Plentiful daylight shows icebergs at their sparkling best and there is a bounteous harvest of penguins, some of them hatching. On a fast ship listed as best in class with superb cabins and public areas and with a flexible itinerary, Paul, Mark and Chris plan on exploring both the Western Peninsula and indeed, ice permitting, the remarkable Eastern one through the Weddell Sea where the jewel of Paulet island with 100,000 Adelies is a seductive photographic treasure. Big ice, big rookeries, big ocean... big gigabytes.

 
Paul Goldstein, Expedition Leader
Exodus guide and award-winning photographer Paul Goldstein has often said that he is happiest on the plains of the Masai Mara or the decks of a Polar vessel. Having completed over twenty expeditions, his choice for our summer months is Spitsbergen, a programme he pioneered eight years ago. Exodus is now the market leader in small ship voyages there. Paul has a ridiculous amount of energy and is, as the Sunday Times described him, ‘a preposterously vivacious guide of almost psychotic gusto’.

Mark Carwardine, Expedition Leader
Mark Carwardine is a zoologist, an active and outspoken conservationist, an award-winning writer, a TV and radio presenter, a widely published wildlife photographer, a magazine columnist and a conservation consultant. He has written more than 50 books (including several bestsellers) and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles and has been writing a provocative monthly column in BBC Wildlife magazine since January 2004. He presented the popular six-part BBC-TV series Last Chance to See, with actor and comedian Stephen Fry, in which the unlikely duo travelled the world in search of a motley collection of endangered species (following in the footsteps of a similar journey Mark had made with Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, 20 years earlier), and for many years, he presented the weekly half-hour programme Nature on BBC Radio 4. He was also Chairman of the Judging Panel of the prestigious Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition, jointly owned by BBC Wildlife magazine and the Natural History Museum, from 2005 until 2011. His own extensive collection of wildlife and conservation photographs, taken in more than 100 countries, is sold through this site and picture agencies around the world. He and Paul have worked together frequently and are an effective and invigorating partnership. They rarely agree with each other but both bring a lot to the polar picnic in terms of photography, knowledge and opinion!

Chris Packham – Expedition Leader
Chris Packham is, in the words of the Times is ‘the heir to David Attenborough’, a ‘national treasure’ (Metro) and has garnered many other hundred choice epithets on countless news websites. As a BBC presenter he is without peers, as a Conservationist he is top tier and never afraid of a fight and is particularly strident in championing causes of hen harriers, badgers and millions of songbirds butchered in the Mediterranean. He is the figurehead of the RSPB and he is a quite brilliant photographer. His pedigree has no equals and he is a hugely popular addition to our Polar expeditions.  He and Paul have worked together for many years and are quite a tag team, deep down there is a reluctant admiration but this rarely surfaces above the constant bickering! Chris has earned many legions of new fans with his recent programme on Asperger’s and his endless campaigning for causes is in keeping with the thoughts of many Exodus travellers. We are lucky to have him.


RCGS Resolute
Many consider the Resolute top of its class. It is luxurious, fast, with a high ice rating and yet still small enough to access the South’s many jewels.  WIth magnificent public areas and very smart en suite cabins it will be a more than capable base to launch excursions and sorties to the ice.