Cruise port
Cape Adare
Cape Adare brings together the Borchgrevink huts from the Southern Cross Expedition and a large Adélie penguin colony. Visiting the protected area ASPA 159 is subject to permit, guide and access restrictions.
Photo: Kuno Lechner / Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 3.0
Expedition Huts and Penguins
Cape Adare lies at the northern tip of the Adare Peninsula in Victoria Land, on the Ross Sea coast of Antarctica. The historic site is located at Ridley Beach, about 1.7 kilometres southwest of the headland. This remote stretch of coast brings together early expedition history and an exceptionally large wildlife colony.
Carsten E. Borchgrevink had huts built at Ridley Beach for the Southern Cross Expedition of 1898–1900. They were the first buildings erected on the Antarctic continent. Scott’s Northern Party also used the site during the Terra Nova Expedition of 1910–1913; its own hut has collapsed. Borchgrevink’s huts and the objects associated with them are protected as a historic site. They give the cape particular significance in the history of human activity in Antarctica.
The coast is also home to Antarctica’s largest Adélie penguin colony. The management plan puts the population at around half a million pairs in 2018. Penguins also breed near the huts. The animals and the historic objects lying on the ground make this a sensitive natural and cultural heritage site to visit.
Going ashore in the protected area
Cape Adare includes the specially protected area ASPA 159. The protection measures, revised in 2021, allow access only with a permit carried on site and accompanied by a trained guide. They limit visits to a maximum of 2,000 people per year and 40 people at a time in the protected area; no more than four people may enter either of Borchgrevink’s huts at once. These measures protect both the historic structures and the wildlife.
Visitors reach the historic site by small boat and then continue on foot. Where visitors can walk depends, among other things, on the presence of breeding penguins. On expedition voyages, the expedition leader conducts the shore landing in accordance with the permit and the protection rules in force on site. For Antarctica cruises, Cape Adare is therefore a destination where the protection of the historic buildings and breeding wildlife determines access and routes ashore.
