We said our goodbyes on the steps of the hotel and made our way to airport. It wasn’t long before we were airborne once again and settling in for the overnight flight back to Paris.
It felt like we had been away for a very long time but in only two weeks we had done and seen a lot. From Dublin to Buenos Aires and a tour of the city, then on to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. Then we caught the first sight of ship the M/V Plancius as she waited in the harbour to take us on our adventure to Antarctica.
Out into the Beagle Channel and on across Drake Passage which was kind to us for our crossing. Escorted by a variety of bird life including Albatross and Petrels we then spotted our first sight of Antarctica. We had arrived. The following days were spent visiting some of the most beautiful locations on this planet and seeing some of Antarctica's wildlife in its natural habitat, a real privilege.
We've walked, camped, kayaked, talked, laughed, danced and even shed tears of joy during our adventure. It has been a very special trip to a very special place. We had a great group of people who added all the more to make the trip so memorable.
There is a saying "it's not the destination but the journey that matters" and in our case I can honestly say the journey was definitely amazing but the destination equally so. Antarctica delivered yet again. It is one of the most special locations on Earth and hopefully will remain so.
We have already planned the reunion which will take place in where else other than The South Pole Inn in Annascaul, Co. Kerry in May of this year. The South Pole Inn was originally owned by Tom Crean, our very own Antarctic Explorer so a very fitting place for our motley crew of Antarctic Explorers to meet up again.
If you are interested in seeing more on the photos and videos of the trip you can sign up for our newsletter which will have details. We will also be running information evenings if you would like to hear more about travelling to Antarctica or our upcoming trip to the Arctic.
We will also be regularly updating the blog with details of other trips, information about the destinations and also logs of other trips we will be doing so a pay a visit now and again.
I've included a selection of some other photos from the trip below.
Thanks for visiting our blog. I hope you enjoyed getting a little taste of what our trip was about. If you have any comments or questions you can contact me directly at tommc@newhorizon.ie
Best wishes and happy travels wherever they may be to,
Tom McManamon - New Horizon Expeditions - http://www.newhorizon.ie/
Hi Tom,
ReplyDeleteJust watched your video of our trip together on the Plancius and here's what I think:
YOU ROCK!!!
I love the video and want to know if you mind me showing it in a week? I'm doing a slide show at our local libe and I love having a 10 minute thing running on the computer in the foyer when people arrive. They seem to like it...they can claim their seats then wander about in the foyer getting the psyche. It's always standing room only at these gigs and I like to have new footage each year...wow, what a fantastic trip we had with you guys!!!
I'm really glad you two got to spread out a bit on that last paddle in the Melchiors.
I'd also intended to get a copy of that photo with the three dolphins out of the water...do you have one you can send me? I'll use it next week. I'm assembling a slide show for tonight but it'll be a bit shorter than I'm used to.
Hope you're well and happy and busy traveling or making more plans to travel. Are you in the Arctic this season? I may end up there with Oceanwide, that would be fantastic!!! I've let them know, it was my first season with them so anything's possible.
Hope to cross paths with you again someday. Keep up the fantastic leadership work and happy times.
Hugs from Louise!
(PS Your contact email from the web page doesn't seem to be working, hope you don't mind me contacting you this way.)