Dispatch from Antarctica - II

The giveaway is a copy of 'Extreme Earth' by Michael Martin (RRP $100) thanks to Thames & Hudson

A quick message for my Sydney friends: please book in for Black Tie Story Time on Saturday 11 March. Get dressed up and join myself, Brooke Boney, Amy Remeikis, alongside members of the Women’s Justice Network Advisory Panel. It’ll be a swellegant night of drinking, yarns, and dancing thanks to gurugayatri on the DJ decks. 100% of the ticket price goes straight to the FREADom Inside fundraising campaign. Be there! xx

Two weeks below 60 degrees—in the Antarctic Circle

Where do I begin?

I have walked on frozen shores of black volcanic sand with pure white glacial cliffs running perpendicular. I have watched a hundred minke whales frolic under a sun that never sets. I have laid on the metal bow of this icebreaker and felt the thunder of breaking bergs reverberate through my breast. I have heard the sound of cracking ice travel over floating fields with creatures’ tracks frozen in the snow. Swells have slapped at my windows. Penguins have brayed at me. Skuas have swooped me. A pod of orcas spyhopped along the perimeter of the ice shelf in front of us, as though performing, for hours and hours. Sea spray has frozen on my pants within seconds. My olfactory library has expanded to include the rancor of guano and seal blubber. I have drunk my body weight in cups of tea and coffee and hot chocolate. My bare feet have stung as they stepped down the steel gangway, and I felt my rational brain flatline as my body plunged into water so cold that it burned. The tequila shot that came after may as well have been my first for how glorious it was. I sleep with the curtains open despite the never-ending bright light because I have come to understand that my two little portholes are gateways to an ever-changing panorama of wonderment. Each morning promises something new. In the old and true sense of the word, Antarctica is awesome.