AE Expeditions ‘connects cruisers with Antarctic explorers’

A TV producer who worked on a mission to find Sir Ernest Shackleton’s wrecked ship says cruising with AE Expeditions can connect clients to remarkable stories of polar exploration.

Saunders Carmichael-Brown, a presenter and AE Expeditions expert, worked on a documentary about Endurance22, which in 2022 found the wreck which had sunk beneath the Antarctic ice in 1915.

He told delegates at the Association of Touring and Adventure Suppliers (Atas) conference how Shackleton and his 27 crew members were eventually rescued in “one of the greatest survival stories of all time”.

For the Endurance22 mission, Carmichael-Brown and the crew of Agulhas II retraced the voyage of Endurance, and, with just two days left in the Antarctic, they managed to find the wreck, 3,000 metres below the ice.

A film documenting their mission and the Endurance story made its premiere earlier in October, and will be on Disney+ from November 2.

Carmichael-Brown has since followed the route taken by Shackleton with AE Expedition’s cruise ship Sylvia Earle, visiting the explorer’s grave in South Georgia and sailing close to Elephant Island, where many of the crew had stayed while awaiting rescue.

He also told delegates about the wildlife that he and fellow cruisers saw, including seals, emperor penguins, humpback whales and elephant seals.

“It is life-changing,” he said.

He has also travelled with the cruise line to the Arctic, visiting sites in Greenland and Northwest Passage in Canada, where there are more fascinating stories about explorers such as Sir John Franklin – and he saw 14 polar bears in two days.

“Small expedition ships are a great way to experience this with very little impact,” he told the audience.

• Other speakers at the conference included Betty Mukherjee, a contestant on series four of the BBC show Race Across The World.

She told delegates about her experiences travelling from northern Japan to Lombok without mobile phones and very limited funds.

Seeing how other people lived had made her appreciate what she had back home in Yorkshire, and she learned how to live in the moment.

She has since taken a Contiki island-hopping holiday in Greece and told delegates how she had bonded with fellow travellers and enjoyed excursions such as snorkelling – and how being on a tour had taken “all the hassle away”.

Mukherjee is now setting up her own brand called Balance and is working on a yoga and wellness project with Contiki.

• Holidaymaker Carol Palmer told delegates about taking escorted tours with solo travel specialist Just You.

She had travelled for work and pleasure many times but, after being widowed, she wanted to book with a solo travel specialist because she didn’t want to be “a spare part” on a normal holiday.

“I am very much a people-person, I want to meet people like me,” she said.

She has visited India and Tuscany with Just You and is planning a trip to Japan next.

Her experiences on the holidays had dispelled her earlier fears, as she enjoying meeting a wide range of fellow solo travellers and appreciated the “safety and support” of being in a tour group.

• Luke Hand, insight director at Mail Metro Media, urged agents to “align to cultural moments”, showing how his company tapped into interest in shows such as Game of Thrones, Race Across The World and Love Island.

He has also created a calendar of events throughout 2025 – ranging from the Ashes to football tournaments and World Environment Day – around which agents can create “amazing” content for social media.