All the way south

In winter on the Antarctic peninsula, it gets so cold that even the sea freezes over. Frozen seawater makes getting around easier, and once upon a time it allowed three British scientists from the Faraday Antarctic research base to ski their way across the solid sea ice to spend some leisure time away from the base. Around about the time they reached Petermann Island, six miles away, a big storm kicked up and broke up the sea ice. They had radio contact from a hut on the island. At first, they provided updates every day. Then once a week. Then once a fortnight. Eventually, they cut contact altogether. With constant inclement weather and pack ice remaining on the water, it was a long period of time before their location could be reached. By the time it was, they were already presumed dead. When rescuers entered the hut, the one you see above, all they found were penguin feet nailed to the tables. Presumably they had gone mad from hunger and isolation. This was in 1982. Hea...

I meant to write this post earlier, but saying goodbye to Sydney occupied me more than anticipated (I've had enough farewell drinks to last me a good while). But so be it -  I'm writing it on a flight from Santiago to Bogota, having just flown from Auckland after a cracking few days in New Zealand (the subject of the next blog post). So where am I actually going? As you probably know by now, I'm going to two of the three continents on Earth I've yet to visit: South America and Antarctica (Africa will have to wait for now). Why South America? Well, my rough plan circa 2009 was to leave Ireland, explore some of Asia, live in Australia for a year or two to save some money, then go explore South America. That "year or two" down under turned into six, plus a couple extra in the Netherlands thrown in for good measure. So as I see it, it's about bloody time. Why Antarctica? This is a funny one - in recent weeks, when I tell people about this part of my pl...