The incredible 21-day cruise exploring an icy paradise - including the Falkland Islands
This incredible cruise sees adventurous tourists tackling 3,700 miles of open sea to explore areas off the beaten track.
The Falkland Islands are among the stops of an incredible 21-day long cruise taking holidaymakers through icy landscapes and nearly pristine islands.
Australian company Chimu, which specialises in tourist expeditions in South America and Antarctica, offers an adventure in the South Atlantic Ocean aboard the nearly 500-foot-long Ocean Endeavour.
The trip focusing on the Falklands, nearby islands and Antarctica is called Songs In The South, a nod to the performances to be expected while aboard as holidaymakers are accompanied throughout the trip by Australian singer and songwriter Paul Kelly.
The trip aboard the Ocean Endeavour begins in the Argentinian port of Ushuaia on the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, the southernmost tip of South America dubbed the "End of the World".
The first stop of the cruise, which has space for 190 passengers, is West Point, the island aptly named as it sits at the northwestern tip of the Falkland archipelago.
A gem for wildlife lovers, the island is home to a massive colony of black-browed albatrosses, which share West Point with a smaller group of rockhopper penguins.
The small handful of people living in West Point can all be found in the farmhouse near the jetty, and treat cruise ship tourists with tea and cakes.
The second stop of the Ocean Endeavour is Saunders Island, the fourth largest within the Falkland Islands archipelago, inhabited mainly by penguins and seals. Nevertheless, the island has three cottages ready to accommodate tourists, as well as a grass runway from where the twin-engine Islander operated by the Falklands Government Air Service can land and depart.
One of the key stops of the Songs In The South tour is Stanley, the capital of the Falkland Islands and its only city. Home to around 2,500 people, Stanley is on the southwestern coast of East Falkland, the most populated and developed of the two main territories in the archipelago.
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The cruise passengers reaching Port Stanley are received by the city's iconic welcome sign and rows of low wooden buildings.
Other stops of this cruise include South Georgia, the small island and British Overseas Territory invaded by Argentinian troops on April 3 1982, its hamlet Grytviken and the whaling stations at Port Leith and Stromness.
The Ocean Endeavour, reinforced for ice, also retraces the steps of the crew members of the legendary Endurance led by Ernst Shackleton who, in May 1916, set off on small boats to travel to Elephant Island to seek help after their ship had sunk.
The Endeavour will undertake this incredible trip through the Falklands and Antarctica twice between October and January, with fares beginning at approximately £15,600.
