When Sightseers Unite

Is a location without as many tourists still able to maintain its grandeur your kind of thing? A lot of people are into traveling to the ends of the earth to find such a place where no one else has been to before. In the Antarctic continent way down under is where the sightseers from New Zealand and South America plan to converge.

The continent was not discovered until 1820, and since then has been visited only by explorers, sealers, and scientists. Limited traveling occurs to the places on the partially ice free coast of the continent as big as the United States and Mexico combined with a 7,000 foot thick ice blanket. Other than having to sail the stormiest seas, they too have to be in ships that can withstand the impact from ice to get there. As a consolation, there are 24 hours of sunlight plus temperature that rarely go above freezing.

This group of 14 men and 12 women were the first ones in the south of the Antarctic Circle not to mention 2,000 miles south of and New Zealand in the Mcmurdo Sound area. Inexplicable hardships and death were encountered by the British explorers that settled in this area in the past but this now serves as the location for a US Navy facility housing 800 sailors and scientists. Seasons that happen in the Northern Hemisphere happen oppositely south of the equator.

After landing in 1957, two airline stewardesses were the first and only women to come here. Enthusiasm was not a big part of the welcome these two women received from the Navymen at McMurdo Station. It turned out that many sailors did not want to interrupt a long record of being womanless, something to boast about when they arrived home, by watching two girls for a few minutes.

McMurdo personnel are equally unenthusiastic about the coming of tourists in January and February. From the sailors, civilian technicians, and the scientists come the point of view that they were the ones chosen to perform special assignments here. When tourists start arriving, the edge and romance of Antarctica will dissipate. Additional services include drinks, tips, laundry, and seasick pills while kodachrome, a red parka, warm pants, and mittens are supplied by the travel service.

Antarctica was inhabited solely by US Navy personnel and American scientists since 1955. In addition, nine other nations maintain scientific stations on the continent and adjacent islands. How will the Navy see the tourist's arrival? Having no territorial claim mean that they have no say in who comes here, according to the commander of naval forces in Antarctica. However, they have power when it comes to visiting their stations.

Only self supporting visitors are allowed. This requirement is answered by their living aboard a well equipped ship. It is with safety precautions that people aboard are secured. The operational plan from the travel agency meets the requirements for passenger safety.

For a visitor, after visiting the first nuclear power reactor in Antarctica, he could then go to the ship's store and post exchange, have a few drinks at the enlisted clubs, or even go the Chapel of the Snows and attend service. Most of the tourists are bird watchers, hikers, and conservationists, so they will most likely be interested in seals, skua gulls, and killer whales as well as penguin rookeries and even the huts left by the early explorers.