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(Emma) Christmas Day 2010. I am out looking at the hilarious Adelie penguins jumping in and out of the water. Then I hear faintly in the background “Did you know that today is the POLAR PLUNGE?” “OH NO!” I think. The polar plunge is when you jump into the freezing cold Antarctic waters, and get […]

(Alex) When most people think of Antarctica, they think about penguins. The iconic penguin of the 18 different species is probably the Emperor Penguin. After all, many people have seen the movies Happy Feet or March of the Penguins featuring the Emperor Penguins. I was fortunate to spend time with the real things! In Antarctica, […]

(Andrew) On our epic Antarctic journey we saw 7 species of penguin (in order of appearance): Gentoo, Chinstrap, Adelie, Emperor, Royal, King and Rockhopper. This will cover two of those seven: the Adelie and the Gentoo. These are the cutest, in some ways, of the bunch. We saw Gentoo Penguins in Neko Harbor, the scene […]

(Dana) December 21: we visited Robert F. Scott’s hut from his 1911 Terra Nova expedition and Ernest Shackleton’s hut from his 1908 Nimrod expedition — base camps for the explorers’ forays to the South Pole. Inside, we were as close to history as you can get. These aren’t just artifacts from that era, these are […]

(Dana) First, a HUGE thank you to all of our family and friends who supported Greg during his odyssey. The love, generosity and good thoughts clearly bolstered him through an incredibly challenging time. I wanted to share the feelings of the “other 5 explorers” as we continued around Antarctica without our team leader. I just […]

My flight to Hobart, though long, was surprisingly comfortable. I am sure the anticipation of the surprise and the continuation of the adventure helped to ease whatever discomfort I had. Shane and the rest of the team on the Kapitan Klebnikov had done an excellent job orchestrating the surprise. All the baggage was hoisted onto […]

I met Tom Gill for the first time as the anesthesiologists were deadening my leg with a big needle in my groin.  This is called a femoral nerve block and is very effective. I asked if he knew about the circumstances surrounding my arrival. He made it plain that he did. Not surprising. I was, […]

The expedition team acted quickly to grab me off the bottom of that slope and return me to the ship.  Seven or eight staff members (including my fine wife) splinted my leg, tobogganed me to the waters edge, hoisted me into a zodiac and craned me onto the stern deck of the Kapitan Klebnikov. As […]

As the dark clouds of the last four weeks recede, I am increasingly aware of silver linings. On the first day in the Falkland Islands, high winds and big waves prevented the tenders from shuttling the newly-arrived passengers onto the Kapitan Klebnikov, the icebreaker that would serve as our home for the next 31 days. […]

From December 4, 2010 to January 3, 2011 we are going way off the grid: a semi-circumnavigation of Antarctica, starting off the coast of South America and ending 31 days later in the other hemisphere; in Hobart, Tasmania. We will be unable to update the site, check emails or really much of anything electronic. This […]