When we called at Cuverville Island in 2002 there were large areas of moss banks on the steep slopes above the penguin rookery. In the extreme conditions on the Antarctic Peninsular these plants can only grow a few millimetres a year but, even so, we did see some moss growing on a wind-swept ridge. The problems they face are extremely low temperatures, dehydration and low light levels. These problems are at a minimum on north-facing slopes where there is some run-off from melting snow. Even here at zero degrees, which is a relatively warm day for Antarctica, the efficiency of [View Full Entry]

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We arrived off Cape Horn on the way back to Ushuaia in 2002 on a really good day. There was only about a three metre swell, the storm clouds must have been fully 30 metres above the waves and the sleet was at least 30° to the horizontal! In 2008 it was superb for Cape Horn and I was actually able to photograph it. Cape Horn is a place of great mystique due to the number of ships that have been lost there - at least 76 in the last 400 years - and the famous mariners who have 'doubled [View Full Entry]

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A pale light seeped into the cramped bedroom from under the door. There was just enough light for John to see Patricia's pale, drawn face, if he were to have looked. But John didn't look. John stood stiffly in the middle of the room, hands on the back of his desk chair, staring out the window into the blackness. "What are we going to do now?" he asked. After a moment, Patricia, nearly hidden beneath the comforter said, "I don't know. I don't want this to happen any more than you do." John turned around slowly and stood facing the bed. [View Full Entry]

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HELLO BOLD hahahahka * list 1 * list 2 * list 3 1 dfgfgghg 2 rttyuuuuu * qwert * asddff [View Full Entry]

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This is a Love Marriage, not an Arranged Marriage I spent my junior year abroad in the Indian city of Madurai, located in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Whereas in America my dirty blond hair and unspectacular looks often made me feel unseen, in India I stood out. Every time I walked down a crowded road children and adults alike would stop and stare. I was an outsider; no matter how much I tried to fit in, I was a “Vellicari,” a rich white man. In Madurai, I learned Tamil, took Indian cooking lessons, and prayed to Indian Gods [View Full Entry]

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There is something reassuring in the effort still required, even today, to visit Antarctica. Yes, day-long scenic flights from New Zealand and Australia have been an option for the well-endowed of pocket for a while, and now equally well-heeled tourists will be able to fly in to Australia’s Casey Station. But this does not get you to the incredible sights, sounds and silences that we had been lucky enough to experience. Only days and days on board a well-provisioned and expertly-navigated ship could do that. But it’s a long schlep even to the Antarctic Circle, and we were delighted to be [View Full Entry]

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When I started writing up this trip, I envisaged three blogs, one on the trip south, one on the Ross Sea, and one on the trip north. If you’ve followed the last month’s scribblings in any detail (or simply kept an eye on the blogs’ titles), you’ll know this was a somewhat optimistic initial assessment. Everyone who has been before says it takes a surprisingly long time to absorb and to digest fully a trip to Antarctica. The intensity of experience in a short space of time in the context of the long, tough journeys there and back, however mild the [View Full Entry]

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If stepping ashore at Cape Adare was magical, walking down the gangway and straight onto a vast plain of snow-covered sea ice which stretched away to the distant foot of the Campbell Glacier was breathtaking. We’d spent the first few hours of the morning on the bridge or out on deck watching incredible scenery unfold around us. As we breakfasted, the ship rounded Cape Washington and the simple magnificence of Mount Melbourne, and entered Terra Nova Bay. In the distance were the ice cliffs of the Campbell Glacier’s tongue, and beyond that the peaks of the northern end of the Prince [View Full Entry]

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“Exploration is the physical expression of the intellectual passion. And I tell you, if you have the desire for knowledge and the power to give it physical expression, go out and explore…” (Apsley Cherry-Garrard) I celebrated the second anniversary of my leaving the rat-race of a City legal career by setting foot on the Antarctic continent for the first time. I woke that morning to see land outside the porthole for the first time in six days. The cliffs of Cape Adare drifted in and out of sight through the mist and falling snow. On ice floes between the ship and [View Full Entry]

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