Journey to Antarctica: The White Continent

January 4 -- 20, 2012

"If Antarctica were music it would be Mozart. Art, and it would be Michelangelo. Literature, and it would be Shakespeare. And yet it is something even greater; the only place on earth that is still as it should be. May we never tame it." -- Andrew Denton

"Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent, encapsulating the South Pole. It is situated in the region of the Southern Hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At 14.0 million km2 (5.4 million sq mi), it is the fifth-largest continent in area after Asia, Africa, North America, and South America. For comparison, Antarctica is nearly twice the size of Australia. About 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages at least 1 mile (1.6 km) in thickness.

Antarctica, on average, is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, and has the highest average elevation of all the continents. Antarctica is considered a desert, with annual precipitation of only 200 mm (8 inches) along the coast and far less inland. The temperature in Antarctica has reached −89 °C (−129 °F). There are no permanent human residents, but anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 people reside throughout the year at the research stations scattered across the continent. Only cold-adapted organisms survive there. Vegetation where it occurs is tundra." From Wikipedia

I am providing two links to my posting due to the potential limited internet access.

The link directly below is from the tour group Lindblad/National Geographic. They have created a blog site for each one of us ("Sue Blog") as well as a group blog. NG will be posting daily to the internet early each morning. If you would like to have this entry sent to your email address, go to "Sue's Blog" and subscribe. Otherwise you can read it on the main blog site. Your choice!

The dated links below are my web site entries and I will post each day also as I go. I unfortunately can not quarentee that I will have daily internet access, so there may be a delay.