Your first view is of steep, misty, ice-bound cliffs home to thousands of wheeling, screeching skuas and petrels. Deception Island is one of the most incredible destinations on the planet, and one of the few places on Earth where ships can sail directly into the heart of a volcano. Originally a way station that sheltered whalers and sailors, today Deception Island offers a unique landscape comprising barren volcanic slopes, steaming beaches and ash-layered glaciers. It has a distinctive horse-shoe shape with a large flooded caldera that opens to the sea through a narrow channel at Neptune’s Bellows.