Gareth Jenkins from North Wales travelled to the Antarctic in January 2006, and the gallery below is a selection of the many wonderful shots he took.

Following a successful career in management that nonethelss left him disillusioned, Gareth left his job and decided to travel the world.

Here he recounts his experience.

I began my travelling to see the launch of the NASA Space Shuttle in Florida in July 2005 and continued up the east coast of the US for the next two months.

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• Gallery: Antarctica by Gareth Jenkins

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Then I travelled to Egypt, Peru, France, Italy, Hawaii and The South Pacific Islands of Micronesia, the Arctic and Antarctic. It quickly became apparent to me that photography gave me a creative outlet, something that had been lacking in my later professional life.

Peering though the lens of a camera gave me a new and refreshing view of the world. Somehow during all my years of travelling I had not actually seen anything, the camera teaches you how to see. I have since then been learning the art of photography and the processes of digital manipulation primarily through Photoshop.

In all of my travels it is the 14 day Antarctic cruise which has been the most awe-inspiring. The entire experience had an expedition feel - well at least this is how I would imagine a scientific expedition would be, having never actually been on one before. The cruise ship the Aleksey Maryshev was a Russian Arctic Scientific Research vessel, which still retains 19 Russian crew members in addition to the catering staff and three specialist guides.

The number of passengers was limited to 49. This small group was ideally suited to the twice daily Zodiac landings, giving 2 hours to explore the various sites over the 10 days we spent cruising the Antarctic Peninsula.

The Antarctic itself was inspiring in every way you could possibly imagine with its amazing abundance of diverse wildlife and landscapes which awe with its scale and unspoilt pristine beauty.

I was fortunate to see nature at its most specialised with predatory Leopard Seals patrolling beaches in the hope of catching or sometimes playing with unfortunate penguins. In the skies above the beaches Skuas would patrol in the hope that an isolated penguin chick would be their next opportunistic meal, while in contrast Seals were sleeping on floating beds of pure ice. Nesting Southern Giant Petrels would sweep over rocky beaches on their way out to sea to find food for their young.

Majestic Humpback Wales would dive to the depths revealing the colours and shapes of their flukes against the backdrop of glaciers and giant 4 Tonne Elephant Seals would bask on rocky shores, sharing the limited space with penguins which looked comically small in comparison to these behemoths.

Among all this raw wildlife it was the inquisitive nature of the penguins that astonished me. They would approach to within a few feet of us, cock their heads to one side, and look us over, perceiving no threat they would simply waddle away with their curiosity satisfied. If only they could appreciate the truth of our effect on this delicate echo system.

There is nothing to compare to the sheer scale and beauty of the landscapes of the Antarctic Peninsula. The shore line is dominated by sheer cliffs of both ice and rock, dwarfing the largest of cruise ships.

Turning your gaze out to the sea, huge tablet icebergs can bee seen dominating the skyline. It is difficult to imagine the sheer scale of these icebergs which are hundreds of meters high and kilometres in length. It is impossible to comprehend that only a small fraction of their total volume appears above the surface of the sea, this really is one of our final frontiers.

Closer to shore you can see the iceberg graveyards, the remains of once mighty icebergs that did not escape to sea. Here you are treated to an icescape of contorted sculptures of the deepest blues, formed over time by the action of sea and wind.

This truly is the last unspoilt landscape and I am truly humbled that I have been able to see this wonder. I can only hope that we can all limit our excesses to preserve this unique landscape so that future generations can enjoy this place as I have done.

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