tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65413023863388480402024-09-09T19:16:54.854-07:00Journeying into the last wilderness: AntarcticaGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12616865707956909837noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6541302386338848040.post-38473316620383711072013-04-06T22:13:00.001-07:002013-04-06T22:14:32.863-07:00

January 26, 2010 67°10"S, 67°38"W The further the ship pushed into Crystal Sound, the harder the wind pushed back - and by mid morning it was becoming clear that the public liability risk of running landing operations in such weather was starting to exceed the Fram's insurance policy constraints. The bit of chop on the water really wasn't anything beyond what your average explorer could handle

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12616865707956909837noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6541302386338848040.post-55430650793278505162013-04-04T03:44:00.003-07:002013-04-04T03:44:53.394-07:00

January 26, 2010 66°33"S, 66°30"W We'd staggered back to our cabin sometime shortly after midnight, the sun long disappeared from above the horizon, but not before its colour had seeped completely from the sky. With calm seas at the end of a long day, sleep came easily, and it was well into the morning when I awoke. Our inner cabin was all to complicit in allowing a sleep-in,

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12616865707956909837noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6541302386338848040.post-92008755757375874412013-02-24T02:31:00.001-08:002013-02-24T02:31:29.937-08:00

January 25, 2010 65°13"S, 64°00"W The late evening began shortly before 10pm, knocking off a few cocktails on the observation deck while waiting with the rest of the passengers for the imminent start of the MV fram fashion show. That I remember almost nothing about said show speaks loudly of either the amount of cocktails consumed, or just how absolutely thrilling the show was. Since the rest

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12616865707956909837noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6541302386338848040.post-84072614769834093472013-02-24T02:31:00.000-08:002013-02-24T02:31:17.506-08:00

January 25, 2010 64°89"S, 62°87"W As we sat down to lunch, the Fram pulled southward from Cuverville Island and deeper into the Errera Channel, wedged between Ronge Island and the Antarctic mainland. It was a careful journey, as the ship maneuvered through the tight spaces between monoliths of ice randomly stranded throughout the channel, and squeezed between rock walls that seemed to close in

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12616865707956909837noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6541302386338848040.post-22942901037193757342013-02-06T02:12:00.000-08:002013-02-06T02:12:02.364-08:00

January 25, 2010 64°41"S, 62°38"W Being on a boat these last few days is a lot like being drunk. You can't walk straight to save yourself, you run into walls and accumulate bruises. You collapse into bed, and it does its best to eject you from it as the world rolls. You feel a bit ill. The world goes dark.Waking up, everything is still again. Your mouth is dry and you feel a bit hungover

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12616865707956909837noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6541302386338848040.post-69063197409759404812013-02-04T01:58:00.001-08:002013-02-06T01:38:41.816-08:00

January 24, 2010 62°58"S, 60°39"W After putting away a good hot shower, meal and a few cocktails, the boat had left behind the relative calm of the south shetland islands, headed through the swell for a late evening arrival at anotheqr member of the South Shetland group, Decepetion Island. Deception island is the flooded remains of a volanic caldera, some twelve kilometers in diameter. Over

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12616865707956909837noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6541302386338848040.post-57717055728234884862011-01-03T01:47:00.000-08:002011-01-03T01:47:57.688-08:00

January 24, 2010 62°36″S, 59°55″W There was something subtly different about the deck. After a day and a half of moving around like it were a bull at a rodeo, it was now a simple matter of choosing a direction to walk and going - no more of that brownian motion stuff. After reaching the front of the top deck in record time, I could see a huge mass of cloud was welling up over the peaks of

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12616865707956909837noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6541302386338848040.post-30027334318788689572010-03-06T14:08:00.000-08:002010-03-06T14:11:04.447-08:00

January 24, 2010 54°48′0″ S, 68°18′0″ W  - to - 62°35′44″S, 59°54′12″W Just after breakfast on the third day, the first of many frenzies was sparked on the announcement of an iceberg on the starboard side. Flocks of berg-watchers, driven to the brink of boredom by a full day of spare time to entertain one's self, swarmed from the port side. If you happened to be comfortably seated and

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12616865707956909837noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6541302386338848040.post-42913496239774790082010-02-22T01:27:00.000-08:002010-02-22T01:30:39.615-08:00

January 23, 2010 54°48′0″ S, 68°18′0″ W  - to - 62°35′44″S, 59°54′12″W When I next awoke sometime during the night, someone was shaking my box. There was some very apparent movement in the room - which could only mean we'd passed from the calm Beagle Channel into the hot-tempered Drake Passage, a place well regarded for high seas, powerful winds and the odor of regurgitated buffet-food

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12616865707956909837noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6541302386338848040.post-62437015270819776572010-02-12T17:01:00.000-08:002010-02-12T17:05:50.612-08:00

January 22, 2010 54°48′0″ S, 68°18′0″ W They say that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. My journey, however, would begin as many journeys do these days: sitting on my arse. While you might argue about when this journey started, or exactly which chair I was sitting on when it started, but the chair I'm actually talking about is a blue and grey tiger-striped reading chair

Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12616865707956909837noreply@blogger.com0