Livingston Island

Early explorers believed an undiscovered continent Terra Australis Incognita lay in the far southern ocean. They pushed further and further south but by the 18th century were discouraged by reports from Captain Cook and his contemporaries that the far south was ice-bound. No prospect of sheep-farming here, still there might be whales or seals to hunt, or mineral wealth, or at least the chance to plant the flag on some desolate place, win jingoistic applause and snub rival nations.

In the early 19th century several ships probed south of 60°S. Their problem was always to resolve what was ice, or an icy island, or an icy mainland, and to do so on a heaving deck in the sleet with simple instruments and a target socked in by fog. Several "islands " logged in that period turned out to be non-existent "phantoms". Livingston was the first reliable sighting south of 60°S, in 1819 by William Smith from England. He saw it by accident, swinging far south of Cape Horn to find better winds, and on that occasion didn't land. A later voyage by James Weddell found wreckage from the Spanish warship San Telmo, which had disappeared in 1819 in foul weather. So that Spanish crew were the first people to die in Antarctica; it's not known if any got ashore.

Much of the island is covered in ice, with great ice cliffs to deter access, but Byers Peninsula in the west is ice-free. In the 1820s this became a base for seal hunting, so the area is dotted with cabins, boats and other remains of that era. These are now protected as historic artefacts - and the seals and other wildlife are likewise protected. (The whaling industry mostly passed Livingston by, as those vessels found better hunting elsewhere.) The ice-free terrain also creates an unusual habitat, with growth of lichen and tundra, and enables the study of rocks that elsewhere are deeply buried. It has research bases, one of them Bulgarian. That nation had been involved in Russian / Soviet polar exploration, but increased its efforts in the 1990s after the fall of the iron curtain. So "Livingston" is now the name of several streets and squares in Bulgaria, and the island has the world's most southerly Eastern Orthodox chapel, St Ivan Rilski.

Livingston Islands like all territory south of 60°S is protected by the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, which forbids military use or commercial exploitation, but permits tourism. It's part of the chain of old volcanoes that make up the South Sandwich Islands. Its own peaks are extinct but it often receives ash from the active Deception Island nearby. The climate is maritime polar, so unlike the Antarctic mainland its sea seldom freezes. Winter temperatures seldom drop below –11°C, while summers don't get above 3°C. It's notoriously windy and when these veer to face onshore, furious breakers crash onto the landing beaches. Tourist parties need to consider not just whether it's safe to land, but whether they'll be able to leave.

Tourists arrive mainly in cruise ships, and are landed by Zodiac rigid inflatable boats to walk along designated trails led by tourist guides and enjoy picturesque scenery and wildlife.

Move by sea, rather than slogging overland, for all but a few short trails. Best are Ribs (rigid inflatable boats; Zodiac is the brand leader) as they can manoeuvre around ice floes and draw up on beaches.

The ice is dangerous, as it's riddled with crevasses, often unseen below fragile snow bridges.

• 🌍 Half Moon Island is 1.3 km off Livingston and the site of Cámara Base (Argentina, summer only). It's a tombola of gravel connecting extinct volcanic islets - the bay Menguante Cove may be a submerged caldera. Cruise ships often visit, landing groups by Rib (Zodiac) to follow a walking track and view the wildlife. A survey in 2013 found 2000 pairs of chinstrap penguins and 100 pairs of south polar skuas. The lighthouse near the base is a 12 m tower with a range of 11 km; it's solar-powered. The track takes in Xenia Hill, 96 m. The large island seen northeast is Greenwich.
• 🌍 Williams Point is the northeast tip of Livingston. This is the bleak place spotted by William Smith in 1819, the first confirmed sighting of land south of 60°S. His ship was also called William. A Bulgarian flag flutters here and they've named the ice-clad peninsula "Varna" for the Black Sea port of Varna. The islets seen 1 km further out are the Zed Islands, named by a British expedition of 1935, while to their west is Desolation Island.
• 🌍 Cape Shirreff is the ice-free tip of the otherwise ice-clad Ioannes Paulus II Peninsula. Shirreff was a British naval commander who learned of Smith's discovery and chartered William to return and survey these islands (and he himself was called William). Pope John Paul II travelled widely, but no pope has yet reached Antarctica. Two summer-only bases sit side by side: Shirreff (USA) and Doctor Guillermo Mann (Chile) - that name formerly referred to a base on the Antarctic mainland, now abandoned. The cape is rich in wildlife but under special protection, so tourists may not land or sail close in. This restriction also applies to nearby San Telmo island, named for the Spanish vessel of 1819 - its wreckage was found on the cape and there's a memorial cairn. That ship was sailing to crush rebellion in Spain's colonies in Chile, which Shireff was doing his best to stir up. It disappeared into the storms at 62°S, already within Antarctica. Flotsam wreckage can drift a great distance but perhaps one day undersea imaging will find heavy items such as cannon, which would pinpoint its break-up. Until then, the death throes of San Telmo can only be imagined.

• 🌍 St Kliment Ohridski Base (База Св. Климент Охридски, Ohridski Base). This summer-only Bulgarian base was founded in 1988 in the pre-fabs known as Lame Dog Hut and Russian Hut. From 1993 it was expanded and re-named for St Kliment Ohridski, the 10th century bishop who promoted Cyrillic script and Slavonic church language, to assert Bulgarian cultural identity separate from Byzantine Greek influence. The base moved into its present building in 1998. It's fronted by Bulgarian Beach, a long shingle spit that encloses two lagoons. The sea just here is very shallow so access can be tricky even by Rib. (updated Dec 2022)
  • Lame Dog Hut the light green cabin 50 m up the hill was the original base, and is now the oldest building on the island. Designed as a prefab for logging operations, it was adapted for polar use and now houses the Livingston Island Museum, depicting the early days of Bulgarian exploration hereabouts. Lame Dog (Куцото куче, Kutsoto Kuche) was the nickname awarded when it was found bucking about in the winds with damaged support legs. Russian Hut the smaller red one next to it was likewise part of the original base.
  • St Ivan Rilski Chapel (Параклис Свети Иван Рилски) another 50 m up Pesyakov Hill is the round red prefab resembling an overturned boat. Ivan Rilski (876-946 AD) was a hermit and is now the patron saint of Bulgaria. The chapel was established in 2001 further up the hill but moved to its present more accessible site in 2011, and is the world's most southerly Eastern Orthodox chapel.
  • The Cyrillic Script Monument was erected near the top of Pesyakov Hill in 2018. It symbolises Bulgarian-Mongolian friendship: Mongolia also uses Cyrillic script. Don't stray from the marked trails on the hill as the vegetation is fragile.
• 🌍 Juan Carlos I Antarctic Base is 3 km further southwest along the coast, and linked to St Kliment Ohridski by a 5.5 km hiking trail. It comprises half a dozen bright red buildings and is summer only; tourists seldom visit. It's named for King Juan Carlos I (b 1938), who was Franco's successor and expected to continue his legacy, but instead turned Spain into a modern democracy. His later reign was mired in scandal and he abdicated in 2014.

• 🌍 Liverpool Beach is free of ice, so it has plenty of wildlife and is often visited by tour groups. It's 1.8 km long, bounded to the south by the tip of Hannah Point and to the north by the outflow of Verila Glacier. The name reflects the many Liverpool-based seal hunters who came this way, including William Smith who discovered Livingston. Hannah was another sealing vessel, wrecked in the South Shetland Islands in 1820.
• 🌍 Byers Peninsula forms the west end of Livingston and is mostly ice-free. Camp Byers (Spain) and Camp Livingston (Argentina) are summer-only bases. The area is under special protection and tourists may not visit.
• 🌍 Rugged Island is 2 km west of Byers Peninsula. Sealing and whaling crews have camped here, but tourists don't visit. The large islands seen in the distance are Smith to the north and Snow to the southwest - they're ice-clad and nobody visits.
• Glaciers and ice cap cloak most of these islands but are in retreat. Since consistent accurate measurement began in the 1960s, the ice front has retreated by about 1 km, and 2 km for the eastern Huron Glacier. There is little permanent sea ice, shorelines and coves have been exposed, and single glaciers are separating into their tributaries. Retreat is faster here than elsewhere because Livingston receives dumps of ash from nearby Deception island volcano, and the sooty ice traps heat. Nevertheless it's a microcosm of what is likely to happen to the Antarctic Peninsula within a few decades and the rest of the mainland coast within the 21st century.

• Tangra Mountains form the backbone of the island. Their northeast slopes between Elena Peak and Renier Point are used for backcountry skiing and climbing.
• Mount Friesland (1700 m) is the highest point on the island - probably, but variable ice cover means that other peaks sometimes surpass it. Standing 10 km east of St Kliment Ohridski base it's a difficult ascent, because of the crevasse-ridden terrain and the foul weather.

Tourists spend only a few hours ashore and are fed on their cruise vessel. Longer stays need a fully self-sufficient expedition. The base stations only have enough food and drink for their own needs.

Sleep back on your support ship. Only a heavy-duty expedition should attempt to camp in this climate.

No mobile signal of course. You need radio comms to stay in touch with your support ship; this will have Inmarsat satellite phones.

• Deception Island 30 km south is the must-see within the South Shetland Islands for its magnificent natural harbour, a volcanic caldera.
• As with the other South Shetland Islands, onward travel is via the airport and harbour at Villa las Estrellas on King George Island.
• From King George Island expedition ships head along the Antarctic Peninsula.
• Eventually you have to return north towards South America, probably via Ushuaia.