February 11, 2013
In 1914, on the eve of the first world war, the great adventurer, leader and Irishman, Sir Ernest Shackleton left England to undertake the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition. It was an adventure that nearly ended in disaster when his ship, the […]
February 13, 2013
I am ridiculously excited to learn that I will be in Antarctica at the same time as Sir Ranulph Fiennes as he sets out to attempt the first trans-Antarctic crossing in winter where he will endure a permanent state of […]
February 14, 2013
Twenty seven hours of travelling later and I am approximately two thirds of the way to my destination having arrived in Santiago – much as I’d like to provide a stunningly informative viewpoint on the Chilean capital my experience so […]
February 15, 2013
A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. John Steinbeck
February 16, 2013
Today Punta Arenas is my oyster. Capital of the Magallanes region of Chile it sits on the Magellan Straits, a natural fracture dividing the South American mainland from Tierra del Fuego which provides a rather useful shortcut avoiding Cape Horn. […]
February 17, 2013
This morning I take a trip to the Punta Arenas cemetery to witness the Chilean way of death in all of its splendour. Mausoleums of the size of provincial town halls are arranged along pine avenues, monuments to several generations […]
February 18, 2013
Today will be a better day. Yesterday we left Punta Arenas early to make our good weather window. Two hours later we arrive at Frei Airbase, run by the Chilean military. It looks like we have landed on the surface […]
February 19, 2013
64 degrees South – Cueverville Island. This morning we will visit the Penguin colony of Cuerverville Island (as nothing in Antarctica possesses a ‘native’ name everything tended to get named after obscure steamship captains or rich expedition sponsors). This […]
February 20, 2013
On Tuesday morning we get the chance to visit what is possibly the closest thing to a tourist attraction in Antarctica. Port Lockroy was (and still is) a British owned science station in the Gerlache Strait. As part of the […]
February 22, 2013
To Detaille Island, home to an eight man team from the British Antarctic Survey between 1956 and 1959. Like many other survey huts, this has been designated an historic site and preserved by the Antarctic Heritage Trust (although, given the […]
February 23, 2013
In the morning we take an early zodiac from the ship in the face of a wind that could cut glass, to visit the ‘icebergs graveyard’, a shallow sound where large chunks of the glacier have been grounded and then […]