About

We are four friends who shared an ambition to visit one of the most desolate places on the planet – Antarctica.  Mary, Aileen and Gerry are Irish, while Glen is an Aussie who also has previous Antarctic experience (lucky him).  This trip was a long time in the planning – Antarctica is not an easy place to get to.  However, we finally made it in February and March this year (2013) our journey taking us from Dublin, via Buenos Aries and Ushuaia, to the South Shetland Islands, the Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia and the Falkland Islands. It was an epic adventure that included a total of 19 days at sea.

This Blog was intended as a means of keeping family, friends and anyone else with an interest, up to date with our great adventure.   It now stands as a permanent record of our voyage and an important log of all that we experienced.   We will update it with thoughts about all matters Antarctica as time progresses.

Turn to the Blog page itself for a day-by-day, blow-by-blow account of our journey.  Our Gallery page provides a photographic account.

We chose to travel on the MS Fram for a variety of reasons including timing, itinerary, cost and size of ship.   For us, the opportunity to visit the Falkland Islands and, more to the point, South Georgia, resting place of one of the great heroes of Antarctic exploration, Sir Ernest Shackleton, was almost as important as setting foot on the Great White Continent itself.  See our itinerary here.

Indeed for many people, the inspiration to visit Antarctica will come from learning of the heroic exploits of Shackleton’s 1914 – 1917 “Endurance” expedition.  Never was an expedition more aptly named. We hope to give a flavour of the trials, tribulations and hardships endured by these mighty men, as well as of their immense bravery and courage, on our Shackleton page where we will post some  “contemporaneous”  reports from Shackletons own account of that famous voyage. Even though our own adventure has come to an end, we will continue to update Shackleton’s Blog for all who have an interest in this incredible story.

The most extraordinary feature of Shacketon’s voyage, the 800 nautical mile journey in a small open boat from Elephant Island to South Georgia (a journey we retraced in the Fram) and the subsequent crossing on foot of the mountainous interior of the island to find safety and rescue for his men, was re-enacted in 2013 by a team of adventurers led by Tim Jarvis. The Shackleton Epic is an extraordinary tribute to a remarkable achievement from another era.

We hope you enjoy this Blog