“To anyone who goes to the Antarctic, there is a tremendous appeal, an unparalleled combination of grandeur, beauty, vastness, loneliness, and malevolence – all of which sound tremendously melodramatic – but which truthfully convey the actual feeling of Antarctica. Where else in the world are all of these descriptors really true?”

Captain T.L.M. Sunter

I honestly don’t know what to say. I am having the time of my life. It is so unbelievably beautiful here. I have met some of my all-time favourite people, I have fallen against the walls with the heaving of the boat, I have eaten too much, I have not eaten enough, I have slept too much, I have not slept enough, I have laughed so hard it hurts, I have told stories you should never tell people you have just met and I have heard stories you should never tell people you have just met, I have taken risks I wouldn’t normally have taken, I have been observant, yet I haven’t seen enough, I have talked too much, I have been too quiet. I have seen things very few people in the world get to see. I have done things very few people have an opportunity to do. I have been to the Antarctic!!

I continue to ask the people I have met on this adventure why they chose to come here. For many obvious reasons it is not a typical or a likely travel destination and I am a little fascinated with why others have chosen to venture this far south. I am getting a little bit of a reputation for continuing to ask this question. (I don’t think some are answering honestly, of course and I continue to ask!) There are many different answers to the question, from Antarctic being the final continent to this has been a lifelong dream.

Asking myself the same question of course is a little more difficult. This entire adventure has been amazing, taking a leave from my job to travel, visiting an entire bucket-list of wonderful places and meeting a whole host of fantastic people. I can’t say enough great things about this adventure. The Antarctic however, was always the dream. I don’t really know when the idea was planted or how it seemed to get under my skin but I have known for a long time that this was a place I needed to visit. Partly the sense of adventure I’m sure, partly the vastness, the sheer beauty of it down here, the lack of tourists in the untouched landscape and the fact that very few people have been here. All of these combined would be my reason for participating in his amazing adventure.