testmeat photoblog

while i was on the ship sailing around south georgia i learnt about ernest shackleton, the famous explorer who was buried on the island. shackleton's most well known expedition was with the ship endurance, which was crushed in antarctic ice forcing shackleton and his crew to flee in lifeboats. what followed was an unbelievable journey which is well worth reading up on, and culminated in shackleton (along with his companions worsley and crean) completing a treacherous 17 mile trek across the mountains and glaciers of south georgia. when they eventually made it to this this spot overlooking stromness bay, shackleton wrote:

"at 1:30 pm we climbed round a final ridge and saw a little steamer, a whaling boat, entering the bay 2,500 feet below. a few moments later, as we hurried forward, the masts of a sailing ship lying at a wharf came in sight. minute figures moving to and fro about the boats caught our gaze, and then we saw the sheds and factory of stromness whaling station."

it must have been an overwhelmingly magnificent sight after making an almost impossible journey, which makes it all the funnier that shackleton continued his account by wirting: "we paused and shook hands, a form of mutual congratulation that had seemed necessary" which is the most british reaction to finding literal salvation.

here's the original