Good morning everybody! We fly tomorrow. End result – our fridge is empty, teens have gone off to their mother’s for a few weeks, and we’ve packed up. Our dog is ready to be dropped off at her friend’s house tomorrow morning where they’ll have a great time for the next month.
Yesterday’s pre-travel opportunities included lining up the neighbors to take our trash out later this week and bring the bins back in; coordinating with the plant caretakers; and most importantly polishing my shoes while watching football!
Also, I finished my third “Travel reading” book, Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica by Sara Wheeler. It’s going to Antarctica with me so I can hand it off to my mother while will be on the same cruise.
Sara Wheeler breaks Terra Incognita into roughly three different parts. Her first part is where she flys from New Zealand to McMurdo, the American base on Ross Island by the Ross shelf and spends at least a couple of months at McMurdo as well as flying, sledging, helicoptering, and otherwise traveling out to various research camps elsewhere on the ice including a visit to the West Antarctic Ice Sheet as well as the South Pole research station. She spends a lot of time talking about the early explorers of Antarctica especially the British (spoiler alert – Sara is British). She isn’t exactly easy on the British; for instance, she poked fun at their attitude that “of course a Brit would reach the pole first.” Much of what she discusses about life on the ice especially life at the Pole was shared with me by a friend of mine who spent ten months wintering at the South Pole in 2004 and 2005.
After her stay at McMurdo in the first part of the book, she transfers to the British bases the largest of which is Rothera; her experience there is entirely different. Although the book is set in the 1990s which seems like the modern era to me, and only ten years before my friend was at the pole, her experiences on South America, especially at Rothera, seem as if they were from another era. During this time she was much happier at research camps away from the stations rather than at the station itself. Also, in order to travel to Rothera, on the Antarctic Peninsula, she literally had to fly throughNew Zealand and Los Angeles and then home to London to return via Royal Air Force transport to the Falkland Islands and then a Dash-7 to Rothera…. It certainly was thelong way round.
For her final stay, she felt called to return – towards the end of the Antarctic winter, and in case anybody is interested in reading it, I won’t spoil it, but it was her happiest time on Antarctica it seems.
One thing she reminds the reader, and this is relevant for Antarctic cruisers – The Antarctic Peninsula is the banana belt. Especially in the summer it is warmer than Ross Island by 20 degrees and warmer than the South Pole by even more. Year round the peninsula is close to the temperature of the water around it. Areas that are surrounded by ice or land are much, much colder. It’s also the wettest part of the continent.
Anyway, if you read this, thanks for reading along. If you’re interested in the science and experience of being in Antarctica as well as the history, Terra Incognita is a great read. I also read Travels in a Thin Land where Sara Wheeler speaks of her experiences traveling the length of Chile – top to bottom – for the better part of a year, and I read Endurance by Alfred Lansing about Shackleton’s expedition. Hopefully if all goes well we will come close to Shackleton’s landing spot on Elephant Island.
Finally, I have an Antarctic Cruise Guide for understanding the geography around the peninsula as well as the wildlife, and I have a Lonely Planet South America guide forideas on how to spend time in Santiago as well as port days where we don’t haveexcursions planned. I wouldn’t recommend the Lonely Planet book – it’s too heavy and takes up the weight of a couple of pairs of jeans in your checked baggage! I’ve included a gratis photo of “Time Management for Mortals” for those who worry about getting everything done before traveling…
Today I wrap things up at the office and tomorrow is the day we travel. I may have felt comfortable waiting until Wednesday to travel but I figured we would want to get to know Santiago a little before getting on a ship and this gives two whole days for things to go wrong rather than one.
Happy Monday to all who celebrate!
In Retrospect 