Author: worstjourney
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Drawing in Dundee
I always love visiting Scotland, and one of my favourite things to do while there is hang out with the ghosts of the Heroic Age on the RRS Discovery in Dundee. I will always recommend a visit, but if you happen to be convenient to Dundee on Thursday 27 July, I will be hosting a…
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Ponting (and me) at The Atkinson (no relation)
In the seaside town of Southport is a museum called The Atkinson. This has no connection to Surgeon Lieutenant E.L. Atkinson R.N., but does have a polar connection in that Frederick Hooper, Terra Nova steward, spent the latter years of his life in Southport, and left them his Antarctic stuff. It also happens to be…
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Die Schlimmste Reise
Worst Journey: The Graphic Novel is out in Germany! From 23 May 2023 you will be able to get a super-large glossy and deluxe Die Schlimmste Reise der Welt from Panini, translated by the excellent and fastidious Katharina Reiche. The annotations are significantly reduced from the English version, but are be available on this site…
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Polar Museum Show
When an unexpected gap in programming opened up in the Polar Museum’s exhibition calendar in the autumn of 2022, they generously asked if I might like to do something about the graphic novel to fill the space between shows. Vol.1 is only the journey to Antarctica, and therefore not very polar, as such, so we…
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Cape Evans: Aft Cabins
Coming out of the Tenements, we proceed down towards the end of the wardroom and find ourselves looking into a corner that is almost, but not quite, its own little room. This is where Captain Scott’s bunk was, as well as that of Teddy Evans, technically his second-in-command, and Dr Wilson, who everyone else considered…
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Cape Evans: The Tenements
As we walk deeper into the hut from the mens’ quarters, coming through the gap in the bulkhead, the view looks like this: Today we’re going to look at the section to our left, or mapping the hut in nautical terms, starboard amidships. This is the area of the hut that was known as ‘The…
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Cape Evans: Men’s Quarters
It’s time to step into the Terra Nova hut. Look, the door is already open. It’s open because the Antarctic Heritage Trust is here doing their annual check-up. Just because they’re here, though, doesn’t mean you don’t have to do the same boot-brush-and-sign-in routine that you do at Hut Point, so you do that. Here’s…
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Cape Evans, Exterior
I have enough photos of the interior of the Cape Evans hut to fill twenty posts, but to get a good idea of the context for the hut, let’s do a little exploring outside, first. If you are standing facing the hut as in the photo above, the outward tip of Cape Evans is off…
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The Road to Cape Evans
Having done Sea Ice training at last, I was clear to head out on snowmobile. My coordinator’s intent had been to do a ‘shakedown’ one day – a practice run, to get used to the vehicles, how to load and tie down the sledge, a chance to get things wrong when it doesn’t really matter…
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Sea Ice: Crack Safety
Water ice is a curious material: though apparently a solid, it can nevertheless flow, bend, and wrinkle. The mile-thick Antarctic ice cap is very gradually flowing out to the edges of the continent, through the mountains in glaciers, and when those glaciers leave their channels they spread out like hot fudge (only much slower). Most…