Endurance

When it comes to embarking on epic journeys and making some art along the way, you'd be hard-pressed to find anything rivaling Ernest Shackleton's 1914 expedition to the Antarctic, which was documented so magnificently on film and in photographs by Frank Hurley. If you're unfamiliar with this incredible story, it goes like this.

In August 1914, Shackleton set sail from Plymouth on The Endurance bound for Antarctica, where he hoped to become the first person to cross the frozen continent on foot. The expedition reached the Weddell Sea in January 1915, but the pack ice closed in, and in October that year The Endurance was crushed. The crew salvaged what they could from the ship and after camping on the ice and making several unsuccessful attempts to flee on sleds, they boarded three lifeboats and sailed to Elephant Island, a voyage of seven days.

From there, Shackleton and five crew members set out on one of the lifeboats across some of the most treacherous seas in the world for South Georgia, some 1500km away, in a voyage that's been described as one of the most remarkable maritime crossings ever undertaken. After 14 days they reached the southern coast of South Georgia, but their journey still wasn't complete. To get from where they landed to the populated northern coast of the island, they had to cross an uncharted mountain range.

Shackleton and two crew members eventually made it to the whaling town of Stromness. From there they organized the rescue first of the crew members on the southern coast of South Georgia, and then of the crew members still stranded on Elephant Island. All 22 men left behind had survived, and were picked up in August 1916, some four months after Shackleton left Elephant Island, and two years after they originally set out from England.

If you're interested in this story, you should try to get hold of The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition, a stunning documentary (available on DVD) featuring footage and photographs taken by Hurley.

Distance walked since last post: 9km
Total distance walked since blog began: 673.8km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido Project: 27