Sitting in among the South Shetland Islands off the Antarctic Peninsular lies an active volcano called Deception Island. From out at sea it just looks like a normal island with no bays or shelter but as you get closer a narrow channel becomes visible.
The tall cliffs on either side of the channel, called Neptunes Bellows because of the incredible wind that funnels through, open to the amazing sight of the Port Foster Caldera. A caldera is usually triggered by the emptying of the magma chamber beneath a volcano as the result of a large volcanic eruption, the sea then floods in. This one formed 10,000 years ago and is still grumbling. It is one of the only places in the world where vessels can sail directly into the centre of an active volcano. Apparently it is regarded as a safe anchorage if you don’t think about the eruptions that happened in 1967 and again in 1970!

British sealers found the island in the early nineteenth century and within five years every seal in the vicinity was gone and the island abandoned. In the early twentieth century whalers took over using the sheltered bay as a successful whaling station for factory ships until the 1930’s. In 1908, the British government formally declared the island to be part of the Falkland Islands, then Argentina took over, but the only bases on the island for many years now have been scientific ones which are regularly destroyed by eruptions.

“Deception Island is classified as a restless caldera with a significant volcanic risk.”

A great deal of Deception Island is covered in glaciers, but it also has some wildly varying microclimates, near volcanic areas the air can be as hot as 40 °C and water temperature can reach 70 °C with the result that there a lots of mosses and organisms thriving. The island has the greatest number of rare plant species of any place in the Antarctic.

Once inside the caldera we tucked into Whalers Bay and dropped anchor. The remains of the whaling Station with it’s cemetery – the largest in Antarctica – half buried longboats and various buildings is rather sad and a little eerie. The sand is black and although sheltered from the wind it is truly freezing.

Walking along the black sandy beach, steam was rising and we could feel that the whole shoreline had underfloor heating. A frenzy of digging started and within a short time some of our more crazy souls had stripped down to their swimsuits and were having a natural spa! The trouble was that the water was so hot that a zodiac had to circle past very fast making waves to swish cold water into the pool to cool it down.