Reminders of the early James Bond film, You Only Live Twice somehow come back on entrance to the mystical southern solitude of Deception Island. This island is something special.
The hidden crater from You Only Live Twice with Sean Connery was an image that stuck from childhood, here on this lonely island, that image returned brighter and stranger, aged 30.
For a start it’s “C” shaped. Mystical enough – where else in the world is there such an island.
It’s also the remains of an old volcano. An inactive one, Obviously. Hopefully.
The terrain when you walk on it has a mystical quality about it. It’s like red rock, bricks, snow, ice, coal, ash, dust. It’s probably uncomparable to any other terrain on planet earth. I have never seen the like of it before. It felt like we had landed on Jupiter.
On approach to the old whaling station I half expected an under dressed Sean Connery to pop up out of nowhere aiming a Walter PPK. De de de de du de de du….cue that awesome music that make Bond films as pleasing to the ear as they are to your eye.
There was also no sign of a jaded Japanese princess, bikini clad looking for that posh English undercover charm (via Scotland in this case) to save her from the evils ahead. A skin baring brave Australian, some crazy Canadaians and a naked Northern Irish gentleman splashing in the waters were as close as Deception Island got to mimmicking the moves of Bond, James Bond. This will appear in another post,the day we went “swimming” in Antarctica…at Whaler’s Bay at Deception Island. There were some Englishmen and Asians in town, Lee and Paul braved the waters, but the Hong Kong honey and Phillipenes duo preferred to stay warm and watch from the sidelines.
OK so Deception Island’s very name intrigues you.
I won’t say much more. If you’ve been you’ll have felt the magic within. If you haven’t you can always go there sometime to curb your curiosity. If you don’t want to go there, perhaps having a look at some of my photos and videos will alert you to the pure deceptive marvel of such a place.
In essence you could simply watch the James Bond film “You Only Live Twice” and draw comparisons between the inactive volcanoes in both films. Only, for this lifetime, what you find is that no matter how deceptive it may be, Deception Island is for real.
As much as we love him (James Bond) and his actor Sean Connery, sadly he isn’t real.
Key Song – Nancy Sinatra- You Only Live twice:
Loving the blog Jonny. You’ve inspired me to blog about my travels. Hope you include the West Coast in your next visit to North America. All the best to you.
E.
Great news Erin – have you started it yet by the way? Sorry for the late reply – no idea why I didn’t see your comment before!! Safe travels, Jonny
[…] Deception Island. Try and ensure a visit to Deception Island is included on your trip. It’s a forever deceiving island and a former volcano. A narrow […]
[…] like a “c”, Deception Island is a place of wonder. We spent a full day exploring different parts of it including Neptune’s […]
[…] It was cold and chilly on deck and a wee bit windy. A brave crowd had gathered on deck to view our narrow entrance through the slim channel into Deception Island. To the right of our ship as the captain sailed her gallantly through the tight gap. Why a tight gap? you may ask and why make a big deal of it? The reason is…Deception Island, by its very shape is like a small “c” letter from a bird’s eye view. And the entrance is like going into the letter “c” so this was a special slow motion part of the Antarctica adventure, another exciting time to be up on deck as the captain, Bulgarian Asparuh Chorbadzhiev sailed us into the narrow entrance at Neptune’s Bellows. It was one of a few times I visited the Bridge during the sailing and it was quite busy – everyone wanted to hear and watch the captain at work in what is a tricky job. There is a photo I took of the captain just as we were entering Neptune’s Bellows to head into Deception Island. […]