Journey South Wake this way

Wrapped-up Milo Boyd takes a cruise to Antarctica and explores a frozen alien world of whales, penguins and wonder

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A crackle on the radio is followed by a sudden change in direction of the rib. "A humpback has been spotted," our guide explains, swinging the outboard around.

We race through a maze of bus-sized icebergs, Chinstrap penguins leaping in the boat's wake like little oily dolphins. The sky overhead is brilliant blue, the snow-caked mountains tower above and the day is crisp with excitement.

Suddenly those of us onboard release our bated breath. A head breaks through the water's surface, followed by a hump, a blasted column of water and then a great fluke, turned towards the sky in a languid wave as our whale returns to the depths.

A brief encounter, but a perfect one. Smiles stretch across our faces.

I am in Antarctica on a 10-day trip with Norwegian cruise firm HX Hurtigruten Expeditions. The serious- ness of the 400 adult guests onboard the Fridtjof Nansen is constantly swapped for enthusiasm, wonder and a childlike hunger to learn more about this pristine, alien place. Yet, question marks would begin to cloud this simple joy come the end of the trip.

HX is one of 51 cruise ship operators sailing a total of 122,000 tourists to Antarctica every year. American sealer and explorer John Davis was the first to step on the frozen continent 204 years ago, and since then around one million people have made it to a landmass 110 times bigger than the UK. That figure is rising fast, with annual visitor numbers quadrupling in a decade. All who have made it there have had to work for it, to greater and lesser extents, depending how Victorian your birthdate is.

I didn’t have to spend months sailing, but instead took an overnight flight from Heathrow to Buenos Aires, a layover, a 4am flight to Ushuaia at the bottom of Argentina, then on to the Fridtjof Nansen. We did, however, have to take on notorious Drakes Passage.