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In the start of 2010 I embarked on one of the most dangerous but unforgettable trips of my life, I was going to Antarctica. I flew to Buenos Aires and then down to a tiny town called Ushuaia, which is the most southern city in the world. From there I met my new home for the next three weeks, a cruise ship. Antarctica is protected by the Drake passage, where all the seas meet. I was lucky on my trip there as there was blue skies and calm waters but the way back was a different story. There was a storm in Ushuaia and I understood why everything on the boat was clipped to the ground. Nothing was safe, including me, but luckily I made it back in one piece. Antarctica is not like anywhere I have visited before, to start with there is the coldness, we were told if we fell in the ocean we had less than 2 mins before we would freeze to death. There is no phone signal or internet and it does not get completely dark. My days were full of searching for whales, spending time with the penguins and counting icebergs. One particular day a group of us were in the zodiac boat on the way to a landing when we encountered an unexpected problem. We were all busy watching the icebergs that we passed, the vibrant colours, the green and blue depending on the algae and oxygen. You only see the tip of the iceberg as the rest is hidden in the vast waters below. Suddenly our zodiac boat sped up to the point we all held onto the rope surrounding it, as I gripped on tightly and stared at the wide open space I realised why we were going so fast. A leopard seal was chasing us. These seals swim with the speed of a leopard, have the same markings as a leopard and their bite is enough to make our zodiac sink. To add to this when they are in the water they are silent so you have no way of knowing where they will be. We were all instantly on seal patrol, we had to look for it before it found us. We could see our landing but would we get there, it was still a fair distance to go? I think to the leopard seal we may have been a game, we would speed up if we saw him and he would chase us. He got closer and closer to us showing us it’s sharp teeth as it tried desperately to bite our tiny boat. Faster and faster we weaved in and out of the icebergs with us all holding on for dear life. Then the landing was coming closer but we had to go in shallower waters to get out, we knew the seal was not put off by us and was following us closely. We sped up to the landing, as far as we could get to the icy ground and leapt out of the boat onto the safely of snowy land in the neck of time. The leopard seal watched as if disappointed the game had ended, the passengers and I hugely relieved. I sat on the edge of the landing catching my breathe as a group of penguins unbeknown to me gathered around. I carefully stood up and dusted the snow off and without disturbing the penguins went to see who else lived here. A few hours later under a red sunset sky but just before the ice froze together the ocean we climbed in the zodiac to go back to the cruise ship. We were all very quiet and huddled together keeping watch for the leopard seal. Luckily for us it must have found someone else to play with as we arrived back safely. We all had baileys and hot chocolate as we once again set sail for our next Antarctica stop point with the white backdrop. This was Antarctica and these were the adventures that made the journey truly unique and memorable.