Image via WikipediaJudging by the wild goose chase detailed on the Antarctic Circle website, the $100 reward won't be an easy bounty. The money is yours if you can find evidence to prove that Ernest Shackleton, on the verge of a trip to Antarctica in 1912, really did take out a newspaper advert as follows: "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success."
Whether it appeared in print or not, you can't fault it for accuracy. The carnage of Antarctic discovery is all over the maps: Cape Disappointment, Exasperation Inlet, Deception Island, Terror Gulf. Then there are the stories, more or less known: Scott's expedition disaster after being beaten to the south pole, Captain Oates walking out of the tent to his certain death, claiming he "may be some time", and Apsley Cherry-Garrard's conclusion that "an Antarctic expedition is the worst way to have the best time of your life".
All that historical wreckage makes friends raise a nervous eyebrow when you announce a trip to the Antarctic - but since the 1950s, tourism to this great wilderness has been growing steadily. It's now more a case of, "I may be a fortnight, depending on flights." That said, it doesn't do to get complacent. As recently as 2007 the Gap Adventure-owned Explorer, a tourist vessel carrying 154 passengers, went down in the Antarctic - a story told in gleeful detail by Damien, a marine archaeologist and historian on the trip I am taking. It turns out he was on the Explorer, and has been in various other scrapes, including getting stranded in South Georgia during the Falklands war. "You either want to stick by me," he says, "or run away. I'm not sure which." {Read on}
