After visiting all 50 states before I turned 30, I set a goal to visit all 7 continents before I turned 40. With 5 under my belt at that point, this seemed like an easy task. I had traveled to South America (the Peruvian Rainforest) and Africa (Kenyan Safari) when I was in high school. My family had also been to Europe previously so that was covered too. In 2004, we also went to Australia and then I went back to Australia and New Zealand to celebrate my friend Jeremy’s 30th birthday. So that left Asia and Antarctica. In September of 2018, I visited Bali, Thailand, and Japan to cross Asia off the list.

After dreaming of the 7th Continent for a while, a former co-worker suggested I check out Quark Expeditions. He and his girlfriend did a cruise with them previously and they had good things to say. After doing surprisingly little research and a phone call to their information line, I convinced my boyfriend (James) and my friend Jeremy to book an expedition. We decided to do the “Photography Series: Crossing the Circle” option aboard the Ocean Diamond ship. This relatively small cruise ship has room for 189 passengers and staff plus about 100 crew. Its moderate size and external stabilizers meant it would be good for the rough seas while also not being over the 500 person limit that it would be prevented from landings. The staff contained professional nature photographers and guides who would give presentations on our way to teach us to be better photographers while we learned about the animals we’d be seeing.


What follows is my photographic journal of the trip. Nearly all of the links go to external sites such as Wikipedia which contains surprisingly little information but at least you’ll know that I’m not just making it all up.