Blogs from Antarctica, Antarctica - page 29

November 5, we were bussed to the Christchurch airport and the Antarctic Departure Terminal. There we were made to suit up in all of our cold weather gear (including boots, parka, goggles, hats, gloves and everything) and greeted by Kiwi military and customs officers and dogs who thoroughly checked our kit. We were then shuttled onboard a C-17 military cargo aircraft operated by the New York National Guard. Seating consisted of fold down webbing seats along the inner sides of the aircraft and rows of traditional airline seating mounted in the cargo area. Behind the seats were large pallets of cargo netted and secured in place. I took one of the seats along the side because I’d been briefed by an insider that - though they looked less comfortable - the netting seats offered a ... read more

Russell and I went around a billion churches. After we went to the Repperbaum in hopes of getting some sex. We got no sex. Instead we got two bottles of wine and drank them like tramps outside a music vnue. Hamburg is expensive!!! Russell and saw many a prostitute and then he got so drunk i had to drag him home. In the middle of the night he was sick all over the floor, and I had to clean it up. Bless, arent I a lucky girl!!! Got to go, no money for internet!!!! ... read more

I would just like to mention that I had written a Greece part 3 and it seems to have disappeared. It was about going some where you've always wanted to go and having it live up to your expectations. If you like that kind of thing. Anyway I won't re-write it, but will add it to a lame wrap up I have planned that has been distracting me from writing a play (well editing/changing) and the real world in general.... So for now we're sticking with Greece entries 1, 2 and 4.... which probably is how George II counts anyway. Or, my new theory, that the Mapia stole entry number 3 as punishment for revealing George II's association with them. ... read more

The Argentine presence in the section began during the first decade of the 19th century; though some even affirm that it took place by the end of the previous century. However, navigators from other countries claimed the discovery of Antarctica for themselves. By the end of the 19th century the aid lent by Argentina to foreign expeditions, in particular that of Nordensjöld, Gerlache and Charcot, was properly appreciated. This included the assignment of Argentine place names to Antarctic geographic features, such as the Argentine Islands, Uruguay Islands, General Roca, Quintana, and others. In 1904 the permanent occupation began with the opening of Orcadas Base on Laurie Island. Argentina WAS THE ONLY NATION to have an Antarctic base for 40 years until the British built a base on the same islands. Argentina bases its claims on this ... read more

One of the things that I had been really looking forward to when setting off for Antarctica in 2002 was to experience its grandeur. The snow-covered mountains disappearing into a blue vault; the enormous tabular icebergs floating past with some twenty stories above the waterline; glacier faces crumbling into the sea and the black of volcanic outcrops against a white backdrop of snow. As it turned out we did not quite get to see all of these things, partly because we were not in the right place for all of them and partly because, on that first visit, we had very little sunshine. Yet, I am certainly not sorry that we went because we did see a snow covered island against the blue sky in the South Shetlands. We did see tabular icebergs in the ... read more