Our Travel Stories

Before I write about our visit to these famous huts on Ross Islands, near McMurdo sound, let me just summarize in few lines my recollection of the history of these expedition heroes.

After Ross explored the Antarctic waters and mapped out the land area in 1890s, people realized that the south pole is close from the many locations in the current Ross sea.

Robert Scott, a decorated Royal Navy leader first assembled a team (with Shackleton on the team) with the goal of research in this area and finding South Pole. Scott and team came here in 1901-1904 in ship named Discovery. They set up a base at Scott’s hut at McMurdo Sound. This mission became a more of a learning experience and the team was able to reach only until 82 degrees south – 483km further south from his hut and still 773km away from south pole. But they did not reach the south pole. And then all returned to England as heroes because of their attempt to reach South Pole.

In 1907, Earnest Shackleton, again attempted to reach South Pole. His mission was called Nimrod Expedition. He set up his new expedition base (now without Scott because of their differences of opinion) at Cape Royds on Ross Island. He attempted to reach South Pole and almost (90 km away from the Pole) reached South Pole. But he returned because of poor weather conditions and low supplies for the return trip. He returned to England in 1909.

Now, Since Shackleton had found this path to South Pole, the race to reach South Pole again picked up the pace. Scott and Amundsen (Norwegian Expedition leader) both started the expedition, Scott from Ross Island and Amundsen from Ross Ice shelf in Bay of Whales.

Scott again set up a new base Terra Nova Hut at Cape Evans on Ross Island. This time though he built a better hut. He tried to reach South Pole with the team of 5, and did reach the South Pole, just to realize that Amundsen had already reached South Pole before him.

On the way back though, because of the harsh weather conditions and low supplies, all the members perished. However, they are all held as heroes in the Pole expedition folklore.

There are too many details to the story but that maybe for another day. Just to wrap up, the South Pole was reached in January 1913.

Our ship started the journey with itinerary that covered Ross Sea area/ Ross Ice Shelf and visiting these famous huts.