Blogs from Antarctica - page 13

Meanwhile in the South... In Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s epic poem ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’, an albatross starts to a follow a ship. Back in the days of sail, being followed by an albatross was generally considered as good luck. However, the mariner in the aforementioned poem gets out his crossbow and kills the albatross, which is regarded as a dreadful act that would send a curse upon the ship – a curse of windless days, disease, hunger and thirst (In the poem, the ship and crew do indeed suffer terrible misfortune.) To punish him, his shipmates force the mariner to wear the dead albatross around his neck, seemingly forever - until they all eventually die from the curse. The albatross can be both an omen of good luck or bad luck. ‘Ah! Well a-day! What ... read more

Here are more photos that have spilled over to yet another blog entry from my epic journey through Antarctica. Just so you know, I took about 2000 photos in total on my expedition. So to narrow them down to about 140 photos, was not an easy task. When there were so many photo-ops with the wildlife and landscape, it is a rather difficult undertaking to edit to the best ones to tell my story, and to not bore you with so many penguin pics! The Museum in Port Lockroy was most amusing as you will see with the photos. Thanks for all the great comments by the way, just so you all know, we are reading them and we love getting them! Enjoy! Theresa... read more

Hi Everyone. Well, here I sit back in the States after finally completing the task that originally made my friend Matthew and I set off in his little sailing boat to New Zealand 2 years ago. In some ways it's the end of a chapter for both of us that was in the back of our heads for nearly 5 years and it seems somewhat surreal to have now completed such an undertaking. Quite a bit changed since my last blog and thankfully our thoughts were put back onto sailing our own boat down and back which we did. The effort Myself and especially Matt had put into getting his boat ready to sail to Antarctica and then sailing it halfway around the world so we could complete the trip ourselves and then get so close ... read more

Finding the right words to describe what I have seen and experienced in the Antarctic will be difficult with our limited spoken language from our left brain. Perhaps, the best way would be to beam over to you, a vision from my heart what it really means and feels like, to be with the Albatross as its gargantuous wings sail over the waves of the Drake Passage, what it means to see my first mountain adorned by glaciers, feeding their ice tongues into the sea, what it means to be in a place of such extreme, rugged, prestine, natural and untouched beauty. As soon as the first mountain met my gaze, as the ship moved closer and closer to our first destination of exploration, my spirit said, ¨You have arrived now. It is okay to open ... read more

Hello from Terra Australis. I think one of the most powerful things about Antarctica is the idea behind Antarctica… It’s a place that early explorers believed to be there but could never find it. It’s so pristine and so untouched and it’s never been inhabited. It’s a place where humans have never lived, a place where crops cannot grow… It’s whiter than white – glistening white - a colour of purity and perfection, of peace and tranquility. The hostile environment is beautiful beyond imagination, vast beyond comprehension and it’s empty… Its silence is interspersed with ferocious katabatic winds and mighty glaciers calving and collapsing into the icy waters. It’s an amazing place and I feel so privileged to have been given this opportunity to see it… It’s an Eden, a Utopia. Somewhere all civilizations have fantasized ... read more