Blue Ice: Travels in Antarctica

Front Cover
Juta and Company Ltd, 2005 - Nature - 175 pages
To most people, Antarctica is the white smudge at the bottom of a world map. Few realise that it's almost the size of Africa and that its wild weather and currents dominate the planet. Fewer, still, know that Cape Town has been the gateway to Antarctic expeditions for hundreds of years. Cook, Shackleton, Scott and many more all began their southern voyages from Table Bay. This book explores the frozen continent and the voyages of discovery from an African perspective -- and comes up with some surprising connections.

From inside the book

Contents

PREFACE
8
LURE OF THE SOUTH
12
COOKS TOUR
21
THE SOUTHERN OCEAN
32
BLOOD AND DISCOVERY
58
ONTO THE ICE DESERT
66
A PASSION FOR ADVENTURE
82
LAND OF THE BLIZZARD
96
HUNTING AN EMPEROR
138
CHALLENGING A NUNATAK
146
MEMORIES OF WINTER
154
THE GREAT NOTHING
160
GLOSSARY
170
ANTARCTIC CHRONOLOGY
172
PHOTOGRAPHIC CREDITS
173
BIBLIOGRAPHY
174

ANTARCTICA REDISCOVERED
104
A MATTER OF LIGHT
116
RIVERS OF
126
NOTES
175
Copyright

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About the author (2005)

DON PINNOCK is an associate editor and a natural history columnist for South Africa's Getaway magazine. His life has been somewhat colorful and over the years he has been an electronic engineer, a lecturer in journalism and criminology, a professional yachtsman, explorer, travel writer, photographer and a cable-car operator on the Rock of Gibraltar. He is married to the novelist and poet Patricia Schonstein and they have two children, one an architect, the other studying genetics at the University of Cape Town.

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