Kochi: Kochouseph Chittilappilly and his wife Sheela are back after an exciting trip to Antarctica. He is 67-plus but his zest to explore the unknown and tread the untrodden path has not ceased.
Kochouseph, who figures in the latest Forbes global billionaire’s list, is best known for his philanthropy. The highest and most challenging point of this was when he donated one of his kidneys to a truck driver at the age of 60. The challenge the ‘explorer’ liked this time was an essay to the coldest region in the world.
Most of his journeys have been with his wife who herself is a successful entrepreneur. In the Antarctica trip also he didn’t miss her. But both chose not to go for an expedition “respecting their age, ” in their own words, partly also because of the restrictions imposed in the region. They instead took berths in the 11-storey Celebrity Cruises of the Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd and had a great feel of the region in a fortnight’s journey.
They started the ship journey from Buenos Aires in Argentina. “It takes considerable time to travel from Buenos Aires to Antarctica. We chose this summer there which lasts for four months from January-end so that the climate wouldn’t be extremely hostile. Still it hovered around -20 and -40-degree range. This can go up to -80 and -90 degrees in winter. We had chosen good travel gear so as to face it but still the acclimatisation was a bit tough. The region is windy and the waters were turbulent and we were first visited by sea sickness also. Sometimes we felt like rolling-pitching on the deck of the ship,” said Kochouseph.
“The most mesmerising experience of Antarctica is the view of ice mountains in the long range and floating icebergs. Some mountains have a height of 1.9 km. It is a ‘white world’ with every direction painted white,” he said.
There were a total of 2,000 tourists who included 60 Keralites and 1,000 crew - 20 of them Keralites - in the cruiseliner. “Most of the travellers were above the age of 45. The ship had excellent facilities. It could be called a floating palace with a theatre where 1,500 can sit, a handful of different multi-cuisine restaurants, two swimming pools, health clubs and jacuzzi,” he said.
“For an intense experience of the continent, one needs to go into its interiors in an ice-breaking ship, but that comes under the realm of expedition. It is rigorously restricted and needs special permission and is adventurous too,” he said.
What struck Sheela more in the trip was the absence of human habitation in the region. “Since we had the comforts of the luxury liner and the company of nearly 2,500 people, we didn’t feel any horror of being alone. But I also wished I could make an adventurous trip to the region in an ice- breaking ship,” said Sheela.
“We must respect our age and adventure should not land us in trouble and make us a burden for children,” was the quick response of Kochouseph about such an attempt and also when asked whether he has any plans for an expedition to the Himalayas in future.
“Though we could not descend on the icy land of Antarctica since there are restrictions on it owing to a treaty between nations to prevent exploitation and poaching of penguins, we had a real-time experience of the continent. Currently nations in the treaty undertake research and have camps in the region. During summer, nearly 4,000 scientists from different nations descend on the land which is uninhabited”.
“Antarctica is double the size of Australia and over 80 percent of the world’s ice is accumulated there. The concern of global warming is melting of this ice which can submerge many islands and low-lying areas. Man first set his foot on the continent in the 19th century and the treaty to protect the region between the nations came into being in 1959,” he said quoting from the literature associated with the land.
Sighting of penguins in their habitat is a thrilling experience that awaits tourists. “There are different varieties of penguins, including the Emperor Penguin, which is the largest one having a height of 120 cm, and King Penguin. In the nearby islands, including Falkland where we descended from the ship, we could witness penguins hatching eggs. The smallest variety of penguin has only 40 cm height. There are other varieties of birds from the family of penguins here which can fly,” said Kochouseph.
The 14-day trip in the ship costs Rs 3 to Rs 3.5 lakh per head depending on the type of room and deck exposure. “But one thing that stunned me before the travel was that one of the established brands that provides the wear for the region-- ‘Columbia’-- has a showroom at Lulu Mall in Kochi. In fact, my original plan was to purchase it from Bangalore. When I queried with the showroom people, they said that there is a big demand for the wear since a lot of people from Kerala go to the cold regions like Canada, Russia and Europe to study and work,” Kochouseph said. There was a feeling of déja vu in this trip since they had made an exciting trip to Alaska near North Pole a decade ago, he added.
