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The planned expedition led by Norwegian Jarle Andhoy was already shady, and now there’s an unwilling member along for the ride. The yacht took off in a hurry as immigration officials arrived to investigate Andhoy at an Auckland harbor, while a mechanic was on board repairing an anchor on the 52-foot boat Nilaya.
Mr Andhoy and three crew members have embarked on an unpermitted voyage to Antarctica’s Ross Sea, in defiance of both the Norwegian and New Zealand governments.
A previous trip he made to Antarctica almost a year ago ended in disaster when his yacht Berserk sank in a fierce storm and three men died.
Declaring himself “a Viking”, the Norwegian adventurer says he is seeking the wreckage of the Berserk, which was serving as a supply ship for an attempt to reach the South Pole on quad bikes.
New Zealand authorities, who co-ordinated an extensive search and rescue operation last year in which Mr Andhoy and a companion were airlifted to safety, are furious about his return voyage.
Authorities are looking for the Nilaya, which Andhoy has said does not have a locator beacon. It is assumed to not have adequate provisions for an extra expedition member, either. Link -via Arbroath
Yesterday marked 100 years since Robert Falcon Scott and the others of his expedition reached the South Pole. Photographer Herbert Ponting recorded images of the journey, although he did not personally accompany Scott all the way to the Pole.
Staying behind likely saved Ponting’s life: Upon reaching the Pole, Scott and his team discovered that Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had gotten there first, on December 14, 1911. (Find out how Amundsen won the Pole, in his own words.) Then, weakened by extreme cold and dwindling supplies, Scott’s entire party died on the return journey, in late March 1912.
Ponting’s photographs survived as well, to this day. National Geographic News has a gallery of those historic images posted in honor of the 100th anniversary. Link -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!
(Image credit: Herbert G. Ponting/National Geographic)
Who says you can’t go on a nature hike just because you’re in a big city? There’s plenty of edible plants growing right there in the streets of Washington, DC!
During two expeditions on Friday, adventurous eaters, amateur botanists, and a handful of curious locals descended on the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood of the Nation’s Capital in search of edible plants and wild foods with the renowned forager, ‘Wild Man’ Steve Brill. Our tour, co-hosted by Roadside Food Projects, Atlas Obscura, and Think Local First D.C., covered all of one block. But the number of foods we found, many of which were weeds you’d walk by without a second glance, didn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the available bounty growing between the city’s streets.
Read about the safari and the things they found at Atlas Obscura. Link
(Image credit: Dallas Lillich)
Atlas Obscura is hosting the second annual International Obscura Day on April 9, 2011, in partnership with Hendrick’s Gin. This is a day set aside for “expeditions, back-room tours and hidden treasures” in places near or not-so-near. Events will take place in 61 cities (so far). Here are some of the most popular:
In London Go out for adventure films and cocktails in the historic Royal Geographical Society Map Room
In San Francisco The National Parks Service is leading an exclusive, behind-the-scenes tour of Alcatraz followed by drinks at a speakeasy
In Los Angeles Wander the Magic Castle and mingle with Magicians while sipping Cocktails
In Florence Explore the macabre and beautiful La Specola anatomical museum
In Paris Join an expedition into the abandoned ruins of a Victorian-era tropical botanical garden
In Rome Go underground to explore ancient catacombs
In New Zealand Tour the museum of extraordinary visual design company WETA best known for their work on the Lord of the Rings Trilogy
If none of these events are near you, there are plenty more to find at Atlas Obscura. Make a point to participate in an expedition you’ll never forget! Link
Bouvet Island is 1,700 miles from Antarctica, and further away from anywhere else. The island is a volcano covered with a glacier. The few expeditions to explore it were many years apart, and some of those explorers never set foot on Bouvet Island, since there is no safe place to land. But in 1964, a South African expedition spent less than an hour on the island and found …an abandoned boat.
It was a mystery worthy of a Sherlock Holmes adventure. The boat, which Crawford described as “a whaler or ship’s lifeboat,” must have come from some larger ship. But no trade route ran within a thousand miles of Bouvet. If it really was a lifeboat, then, what ship had it come from? What spectacular feat of navigation had brought it across many miles of sea? How could it have survived a crossing of the Southern Ocean? There was no sign it had ever borne a mast and sail, or engine, but the solitary pair of oars that Crawford found would barely have been adequate to steer a heavy, 20-foot boat. Most unnervingly of all, what had become of the crew?
It was another two years before anyone else went to the island, and the boat was never recorded to have been seen again. Mike Dash set out to research what the boat was doing on such an isolated island, and came up with some interesting theories. However, a definitive answer has yet to be found. Read the whole story at A Blast from the Past. Link -via Dark Roasted Blend
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See that little bitty guy in the center, with the light shining from his helmet? Yeah, it’s hard to see one man in a cave chamber that big -but we have a bigger version of the picture to help you out. National Geographic is covering an expedition to Vietnam last year that unearthed what may be the world’s largest cave -Son Doong, hidden in the thick jungle but big enough to stuff cities inside! There’s a television special, and a full article about Son Doong in the January issue of National Geographic Magazine. AND best of all, Neatorama has a collection of gorgeous photographs of the cave and its surroundings on our Spotlight Blog, courtesy of our friends at National Geographic. Link
(Photo Credit: © Carsten Peter/National Geographic)
This pink-eyed katydid lives in the forest canopy in Papua New Guinea. It is one of the over 200 new species discovered by the Conservation International expedition to the Muller Range mountains last year. See more of the new species of frogs, ants, spiders, mammals, and plants, and videos of the expedition at Conservation International. Link -Thanks, Lindsay Walter-Cox!
(Image credit: © Piotr Naskrecki/iLCP)
The Canadian team of Ray Zahab, Kevin Vallely and Richard Weber have completed a 680 mile journey across Antarctica to the South Pole on foot in just under 34 days. This beats the previous Antarctic speed record by five days! They traveled on foot, skis, and snowshoes while pulling a sled with their equipment.
They endured altitude sickness, vertigo and massive, painful blisters.
They kept themselves fuelled with a 7,000-calorie-a-day diet of deep-fried bacon, cheese and huge chunks of butter.
“I’m dying for some pizza,” said Mr Zahab, who added he was too excited to sleep.
Link to story. Link to website. -via Fark
