Andrew Pearce’s expedition to Antarctica has reached Punta Arenas in Southern Chile via a stop in Santiago and a return trip to Easter Island. We now join him for the final leg of his journey across the infamous Drake Passage to the breathtaking scenery of the South Shetland islands.
Travel to the earth’s southernmost continent presents a series of choices, most common is a stomach-churning rollercoaster ride across the Drake Passage from the Argentinian port of Ushuaia. This body of water, where the South Atlantic, South Pacific and Southern Ocean all meet, can be a very turbulent ordeal for even an experienced sailor, let alone a seasickness prone explorer such as myself. It was to avoid this twoand- a-half-day, characterbuilding experience as well as a love of aviation that led to a decision to research flying there directly.