26.11. Notes from the lectures before we reach Elephant Island
I saw a very remarkable film with the following highlights: Southern Lights: Yes, they exist, but they are not as often looked at as the Northern Lights for obvious reasons! ;-)
The Vulcano Mt. Erebus is a very special place, also nearby there is the most dryest place on earth! It is not a desert, but it is Antarctica! You find even conserved fishes like shark there, that are more than 100 years old!
Emperor Penguins manage to survive the winter n the most severe conditions, that you can imagine! The females transfer their egg to their partner and then walk 100 miles forth and back to reach the water for a feeding trip! Meanwhile males are hatching the single egg! Unbelievable that after 4 months they find each other again in a colonie of thousands penguins just by their special call!
Nice, recommended books that I found in the library:
- Antarctic Oasis: Under the spell of South Georgia, Tim and Pauline Carr
- Antarctica: Secrets of the Southern Continent, David McGonigal
- Antarctica: The complete story, David McGonical
Here some notes from today's very interesting 90min lecture of Jonathan Shackleton:"By endurance we conquer - Extreme survival against the odds"
1914-1917 Endurance (built in Norway) and Aurora from both sides of Antarctica, Endurance via South Georgia..
Exactly 100 years ago in October 2014 they were in Grytviken of South Georgia, which we visited some days ago!
Team of 28 for 11 months trapped on a ship on floating ice, drifted 100ts of km, then the ship was abandoned and sank! Then they landed at Elephant Island with 3 smaller boats! Bad place exposed to storms! 38km x 19km, 6 (Shackleton included) left E.I.
(Jonathan: "If tomorrow we would only see E.I. that would be great, a boat cruise would be exceptional!" So just monitor my live-tracker on www.franktschoepe under NEWS..)
They landed in South Georgia after 526 days, 3 of them continued and did a crossing by feet from the south to the north coast in 36h for 20 miles first to Fortuna Bay, then to Stromness! They reached the whaling station there and all men could finally be rescued! 22 from Elephant Island and the 3 from the south coast of South Georgia!
Some members from the Aurora died! 7 survived! And the Aurora made it back to New Zealand!
A very dramatic story!!! I HIGHLY recommend the book "Endurance, Shackleton's incredible voyage" from Lansing!
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