(YOU CAN EXPAND THE DATES UNDER "Blog Archive" TO THE RIGHT OF THIS PAGE, AND THEN GO TO THE DESIRED ENTRIES.)
THANK YOU!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In late February, 2005, Joan and I took on the adventure of a lifetime. We traveled to the "Last Continent", the continent of Antarctica, ostensibly for the purpose of running a marathon. Yes, a full, 26.2 mile marathon.
Joan, upon turning 50, wanted to make a special statement to the world by running another marathon -- we'd each run 3 prior to this. After much discussion as to where we would do this, we settled on running it in what might be one of the most inhospitable places on earth!
As we found, though, the marathon was only part of the story, actually, a minor part at that. The bigger story was our chance to experience what is easily the most amazing and dramatic place we've ever seen in our lives.
The trip started with our flight from our home in Cincinnati, OH to Miami, FL, and then on to Buenos Aires, Argentina. After a couple of days to get the marathon group organized, and to do a little sightseeing, we flew to Ushuaia, Argentina, at the southern tip of South America. Ushuaia, which has nicknamed itself "Fin del Mundo" (End of the Earth), is the southernmost city in the world.
From Ushuaia, we boarded a boat and crossed the dreaded Drake Passage, known in navigation history as the location of some of the roughest seas on earth. After 2 days of sailing south, we reached the upper portion of the Antarctic continent. These snips from Google Earth shows the approximate path we followed.
We ran the marathon on King George Island, just off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, that spike of land that comes up from the Antarctic landmass toward South America. This is about as far north as one can get and still call it Antarctica. But it does indeed qualify! And after the marathon, we continued our journey south along the peninsula, through the Gerlache Strait, passing through the Lemaire Channel before it was time to turn around and head back.
Now, it has been almost 5 years, as of this writing, since we made the trip. It is still vivid in our memories. But while we took about 900 photos, and kept a detailed journal, we've never taken the time to really document this trip online for others to see. This is our attempt to do that now.
What follows are the sections from our original journal, covering the period February 19 - March 6, 2005. It is copied here mostly unedited (just a bit to fix typos, grammar, or to provide some additional clarity in spots). The journal entries are combined with some of the better or more relevant pictures from the trip. Editorial comments added to the original journal, and picture captions, have been placed in italics like this. For most pictures, you can click on them for an enlarged view, then use your browser's "Back" arrow to return to the blog story.
For readers to fully appreciate the story, start with the earliest-dated entry, and read chronologically back to the top.
We hope this journal conveys to the reader why this was the most memorable of experiences for us.
Mike Weingarten & Joan Thomas
Joan & Mike -- November, 2009
