Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
sevenlefts's review
4.0
I really enjoy reading books about polar exploration. There's something fascinating, terrifying, and inspiring about these stories. I ran across a segment of this book reprinted in The Ends of the Earth and it made me want to read the whole thing.
The Australian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-1914, led by Douglas Mawson sought to map out and explore the geography, meteorology, and wildlife of Adelie Land, the portion of Antarctica which faced Australia. Unlike other explorers on the continent at the time (Amundsen and Scott, notably), they weren't trying to bag the pole.
The books is written rather straightforwardly, taken from the detailed diaries of the three main expedition groups. Wind speeds, temperatures, and other meteorological phenomena abound! But there is also some moving and excellent writing here. A sample:
"We dwelt on the fringe of an unspanned continent, where the chill breath of a vast, polar wilderness, quickening to the rushing might of eternal blizzards, surged to the northern seas. We had discovered an accursed country. We had found the Home of the Blizzard."
For weeks, teams would move out across the coast and into the interior of Antarctica, braving glacial crevasses, frostbite and starvation to try and learn more about this harsh, remote place. I can't even imagine doing a tenth of what these people did.
The most amazing part of this years-long ordeal describes the journey of Mawson and two colleagues hundreds of miles across the ice. A few accidents reveal the razor-thin margin of error that exists in a brutal place like Antarctica, and Mawson has to find his way back to his home base, alone, across a hundred miles of ice, with the soles of his feet coming off.
This book isn't for everyone, but if you like books about exploration and humans surviving in harsh environments, give it a try.
The Australian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-1914, led by Douglas Mawson sought to map out and explore the geography, meteorology, and wildlife of Adelie Land, the portion of Antarctica which faced Australia. Unlike other explorers on the continent at the time (Amundsen and Scott, notably), they weren't trying to bag the pole.
The books is written rather straightforwardly, taken from the detailed diaries of the three main expedition groups. Wind speeds, temperatures, and other meteorological phenomena abound! But there is also some moving and excellent writing here. A sample:
"We dwelt on the fringe of an unspanned continent, where the chill breath of a vast, polar wilderness, quickening to the rushing might of eternal blizzards, surged to the northern seas. We had discovered an accursed country. We had found the Home of the Blizzard."
For weeks, teams would move out across the coast and into the interior of Antarctica, braving glacial crevasses, frostbite and starvation to try and learn more about this harsh, remote place. I can't even imagine doing a tenth of what these people did.
The most amazing part of this years-long ordeal describes the journey of Mawson and two colleagues hundreds of miles across the ice. A few accidents reveal the razor-thin margin of error that exists in a brutal place like Antarctica, and Mawson has to find his way back to his home base, alone, across a hundred miles of ice, with the soles of his feet coming off.
This book isn't for everyone, but if you like books about exploration and humans surviving in harsh environments, give it a try.