I just camped on the ice in Antarctica — here’s how you can, too

I’m not sure I’ve ever camped in a place as serene as the place I camped this week.

From the entrance to my red two-person tent, anchored atop a field of ice, I looked out over an epic landscape: Soaring snow-covered mountains, glaciers and a bay so still that I could see my reflection in the water.

But it wasn’t just the spectacular beauty of the place that made it special. It was the utter solitude that I was experiencing. The stillness. The quiet.

Along with several dozen other travelers who had come to Antarctica aboard the HX Expeditions ship Roald Amundsen, I was getting a rare chance to camp overnight in what some describe as the world’s last great wilderness.

It was something that few humans on this planet had ever gotten to do, and that alone made it alluring — to me, at least.

But it also was a chance to experience living — if only for a day — in one of the few remaining wild and remote places that’s almost untouched by humans.

Snuggled into my HX Expeditions-provided mummy bag in the tent late that night, alongside my partner and fellow travel writer Belinda Luksic, what jumped out to me was what I didn’t notice. There was not even a hint of the presence of humankind in the noises wafting my way, other than the occasional rustle of fellow campers in tents nearby.

No muffled sounds of airplanes flying in the distance. No hum of a nearby freeway. No low-frequency from human world that never fully sleeps.

All I heard was the faint sound of water lapping along the rocky shoreline. Occasionally, a sea bird cried. Somewhere behind me, I thought I detected the tiniest drops of melting ice.

When I drifted off to sleep, it was the primordial sleep of a world long gone — the sleep of my ancestors. Or so I imagined.

Not that I slept all that much.

One of the things that you don’t think about when you sign up to spend a night on the ice in Antarctica is that — at certain times of year, at least — the darkness of night never comes.

The continent is just too far south.

In these “winter” months of December and January — in this part of the world, they call it summer — the sun never sets in much of Antarctica. And that can leave your circadian clock befuddled.

Our camping site, specifically, was along a bay at Horseshoe Island, on the Antarctica Peninsula. At nearly 69 degrees south, it is bathed in 24-hour sun for more than a month each year, from early December until just about now.

At nearly midnight, I was still awake — my tricked-by-the-light mind thinking it still was late afternoon. So were a lot of my fellow campers.

I reached for the eye covering that I normally keep in my backpack and realized I had left it on the ship. I had to resort to Plan B: Wrapping an extra pair of long underwear around my head.

It looked ridiculous, even if it worked, prompting my partner to intervene. She pulled out an extra eye cover from her bag and handed it my way. She is resourceful that way.

Soon I was, finally, fast asleep. Though not for long.

Just four hours later, many of my fellow campers from the ship were rustling awake, making noise, waking up the rest of us. Maybe they had forgotten their eye covers, too. Or maybe we were all just excited by this chance of a lifetime.

We emerged from our tents to take in the icy splendor that is a calm Antarctic morning. Another serene scene.

And then soon, by 6 a.m., after taking down the tents, we were packing into Zodiac boats to head back to our ship.

We were tired, for sure, but triumphant.

We had braved a night out at one of the most remote, hard-to-reach places on earth.

How you, too, can camp on Antarctic ice

This wasn’t something that only a lucky few travel writers can experience — it’s something you can absolutely book. Expedition cruise company HX Expeditions operates the biggest overnight camping operation in Antarctica through its long-running “An Amundsen Night” excursion program.

Priced at 429 euros per person, the one-night outing is available as an add-on excursion to Antarctica trips on several of the line’s vessels, including the 536-passenger Roald Amundsen and sister ship Fridtjof Nansen. Both vessels sail with 15 sturdy and insulated two-person tents that passengers set up themselves after a Zodiac boat lands at a suitable location.

The “leave no trace” overnight camping outings begin after dinner on the ship, with no food or drinks allowed on land, and end early the next morning.

HX Expeditions provides all the camping gear necessary for the outing, including an insulated tent, Antarctic-standard mats, sleeping bags and liners, and a headlamp (during times of the year when there is not 24-hour sun).

New this year, HX Expeditions also offers overnight camping in Antarctica in one-person bivvy bags — lightweight, weatherproof sleep systems that can be set up directly on the ice. The cost for bivvy bag camping excursions is 350 euros per person.

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