wendoes goes to the south pole

April 2002, Dominica

I was bitten by a bug... in the shape of a penguin! It's the antarctic bug that's got me in its clutches. A series of things brought the antarctic into my life... threads in everyday life - a passing reference to South Pole expeditions in a book I was reading, the A&E 2-Part Series: Shackleton, and a Swiss friend who is a Linux fan, a software company whose logo is a penguin (or pingu in Swiss German).

Links to Cool Sites about Antarctica

New! Penguin Cam

Visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium and see their balckfooted penguins. Camera is live from 7 am to 7 pm PST.

National Geographic Frozen Under

A Flash presentation about the Antarctic by Nat Geo Magazine - December 2001 issue. Flash makes these photgraphs come alive.

Shackleton's Expedition - Frank Hurley's Photos

A beautiful Flash presentation by Kodak about Shackleton's Expedition to the South Pole in 1914. It includes original photographs taken by Frank Hurley.

Animal Planet - City Slickers

Lots of information about penguins.... Did you know some penguins can live in the tropics? Guess what Andrew is getting for his birthday next year! Photo Galery, Video Glleary, listen to a penguin bray.

South Pole Station
(URL not always working :-)

See the South Pole Station "Dome" - Click on the Dome to take a virtual tour of the old station.

South Pole Shots

This site has some nice shots of Mc Murdo Station as it has developed over time. The author was there in 1972, 1977, and 1988. See the growth of the station and some beautiful, magically lighted vistas.

Buy it from
Amazon!

This is a wonderful novel about Antarctica which came across my path shortly after I was bitten by the pingu, as related above. I enjoyed it IMMENSELY. I never imagined there were so many ways to describe vistas of ice and snow and maintain - in fact entice - my interest. Perhaps Mr. Robinson is part Eskimo and had some help from that language, laden with a multitude of arctic adverbs. The story weaves together threads of inter-personal relationships, adventure, geology, history, politics and envirnomental sabotage which produces a quilt bordered by hope, not just for the isolated antarctic, but as a metaphor for our world of the future.