SANAE IV, Vesleskarvet, Antarctica Photo: Kristen van Schie/ The Star.

In the past 24 hours, I’ve travelled a long way south. A smidge short of 6,000 miles. Into lovely sunshine and 30 degrees Celsius. But I did read a fascinating piece about what happens if you head further south. A long way further south…

The latest in a series of articles by Kristen Van Schie, a reporter from the Johannesburg Star about the last voyage south of the SA Agulhas, a reinforced research vessel which has been going back and forth to Antarctica since the 1970’s and is about to be retireed from service.

The SANAE (South African National Antarctic Expedition), which has taken seventy South Africans to Antarctica every year for 51 years,  has had a base in Vesleskarvet since the 1960’s. Or rather, as Van Schie’s article makes clear, four progressively stronger bases to cope with unbelievably hostile weather, the first three having either been covered by the snow or collapsed. Well worth a read.

I’m looking forward to being taken by surprise by some new (to me) and different forces of nature, at the Cape Town Festival:  some storming…musicians.

I’ve come far enough South. There are some docile penguins to be seen right here on Boulders Beach in Simonstown. I admire the fortitude of the scientists, but the whole concept of tourism to Antarctica, as EUR56,000 per person leaves me……cold.

Cape Town and Antarctic Research

Kristen van Schie’s Scribbler Down South blog