Customer Reviews

Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Sometimes I think I must have been an Eskimo in a prior life, because I love books about the frozen north. When I came upon this book, subtitled "Travels in Antarctica", by Sara Wheeler, my imagination was immediately captured as I realized this was a whole new territory for me to explore in my reading experience.

Ms. Wheeler is a young British travel writer who spent 7 months in Antarctica in 1995 as a writer-in-residence with the U.S. National Science Foundation. What a great gig!

A lot of research went into the writing of this book. And a lot of love. She mixes all the historical details of the early explorations of Shackleton, Amundson and Scott with her own modern and female perspective of the places she goes, the people she meets and the emotional effect all this has on her as she explores the coldest, windiest and driest continent in the world.

As Antarctic explorations go, hers has a certain degree of comfort. She is helicoptered around to various bases, and even though there are periods of time that she spends in a tent or igloo or prefab shelter, she has radio contact with the base and always has a supply of food. But this, of course, is what it is like to travel to Antarctica these days, and she is fortunate indeed to have the experience of going there. This is not a tourist destination after all. And virtually everybody there is a scientist of some sort.

She describes her experiences well and I loved he sense of humor, especially when describing the differences between the bases manned by different nationalities. The Italians have the best food. The Brits are completely male, bonded in their background of English private schools and given to bawdy toilet humor and practical jokes. And the American staff is approximately 25% female.

The book was a slow read, especially the parts which go into detail about the fascinating history, but I didn't mind. Also, the pace of the book tended to remain the same throughout as she traveled from base to base making her observations. The bases might have been isolated, but even in 1995, she was able to get e-mail there.

The concluding chapters were the most interesting. Perhaps it is because by then the reader has absorbed all the history and first impressions. During these last chapters, Ms. Wheeler spends several months with an American woman artist in a prefabricated cabin out on the ice. The artist paints. The writer writes. They develop a deep friendship as they prepare meals and grapple with the environment amidst the startling beauty of their surroundings, watching the long polar nights welcome the sun.

I was sorry to see the book end because during the time I was reading it, I was transported to a very real part of the world that I will probably never have the opportunity to visit myself. So for all my fellow armchair travelers, I definitely recommend this book.

There have been many, many travel books written, but so few actually remain with you, actually transform you. Terra Incognita is one of those books.

No matter how Sara Wheeler got there, her 7-month trip through Antarctica unfolds beautifully between the eccentric and fun "beakers" she meets along the way and the intense splendor of the continent. Because of her mode of travel (spending a few days or weeks here or there, until her final 2-month stay in a shack during her last trip to see the coming of summer), Wheeler most likely got to see more of Antarctica--it's various bases, landscapes, and people--than just about anyone alive.

Added to this is a great amount of Antarctic exploration history, which makes the book seem more than just a seven-month journey . . . more like 100 years of attempts to figure out this hypnotic and enigmatic continent; reading it encourages you to do your own further research on this subject. While I do agree that there could have been more maps included, just have a globe or atlas nearby if you want to follow her travels more closely!

In my opinion, the downfall of most travel books is that the author focuses too much on him- or herself to the exclusion of everything else. Wheeler does include her thoughts, feelings--how she sees herself changing with each experience. These are never intrusive, however. The only other book that comes to mind with this sort of balance is Matthiesen's The Snow Leopard--another fantastic travel read. This book is quiet but never empty and never dull. Read it and be transported.

This is a good choice for a predeparture read for people going to Antarctica as tourists. Of course, you can always read Shackleton's, Scott's, Amundsen's and Fienne's accounts of their epic journeys into the unknown, but that'll take you a long time, and you may be a bit distracted by the old-fashioned language therein. For a modern description of what life is like in the Antarctic nowadays, and what goes on in the head of a thirtyish female when she gets to visit (for free) with the scientists down there, you can't do better than this one.

The book is part diary of Sara Wheeler as she goes through some sort of change during her visits to Antarctica (three different trips during a seven month period, not one seven month stay as you may be led to believe at first). She's a bit too, hm, spiritual for me, "the landscape talked to me", to the degree that she suddenly decides to stop drinking alcohol, for no apparent particular reason. She describes her feelings well, although I wasn't really interested in reading about them.

The other part (and these two parts are closely intermingled throughout the book) is heaps and heaps of Antarctic history and "folklore". You get to learn all the basic facts about what happened to the pioneers and discoverers of Antarctica (with a VERY British bias, mind you), which definitely should be of basic interest to people who are going to Antarctica themselves.

"Travels in Antarctica" as a second title is not really fitting. She is not traveling. She is a guest of the American and British Antarctic Survey organisations, and is well taken care of by them, both when it comes to supplying her with equipment and with transportation. It is nothing like what traveling in Antarctica is for someone who pay their way through travel agents.

Still; good one, for what it is!

This is a wonderfully woven tale of travel to Antarctica in the past and present. It's not just Scott and Shackleton, but Seismic Man (a scientist there today), told in an engaging style. Nor is it just about travel to a physical place (albeit the most extreme on earth). Wheeler also describes the inner journey that travelers to Antarctica inevitably make. Antarctica is now on my destination list. But regardless of whether I ever make it there, after reading Terra Incognita, I think I understand the lure of the ice. The maps are good as is the ending recipe for the Antarctic version of Bread-and-Butter Pudding. My only regret is that she didn't include an appendix with the chronology of early Antarctic explorations. Terra Incognita is even better than Travels in a Thin Country, Wheeler's earlier account of travel in Chile.

Extraordinary. Made me laugh and cry at once. Deadpan British humour and intriguing detail coexists along soaringly touching, even mystical, reverie. There is nothing sentimental about Wheeler's love for the Antarctic. This is a real journey told with incredible candour. It's a privilege to have read it.

One of Wheeler's cleverest adjectives to describe detailed, jewel-like writing that she admires is "lapidary." She uses it twice in the book to describe the Antarctic writing of other authors. But HER OWN writing is as jewel-like and detailed in the extreme. What an extraordinary book. It's not like a book at all - it's like a world.

After reading the thoroughly enjoyable Travels in a Thin Country, I figured on some entertaining travelogue action in Terra Incognita.

Didn't happen.

What ever happened to the adventurous Sara Wheeler of the Travels book? After slogging my way up to the middle of the book, my level of interest experienced a whiteout worthy of winter in Antarctica. I realized, as I laid the book momentarily aside, that the reading was getting pretty tedious. A bad sign, usually meaning a book is targeted for the pile heading for the used book store.

Most of this book comes across as journalizing that never got the attention of a re-write before heading off to the publisher. The lack of cohesion that should be glueing this narrative together is palpable; this is a narrative devoid of any sustaining "pull". Terra Incognita is a muddle through a pastiche of the historical events of Antarctica although it is interspersed with some pretty decent reportage of current life at the bottom of the world.

Still, there ain't much to redeem the tediousness of this book except Wheeler's wry British humour. But even that's not enough to keep one's attention from freezing to death. Wheeler is encamped with predomitably groups of scientists; as such, this isn't much of a travelogue but rather a logbook of how to hang out with the transients.

I think Sara Wheeler is worthy of producing some real decent travel writing; Travels in a Thin Country bears testimony to this. Terra Incognita, however, is a big hiccup; hopefully she will produce a better read the next book that comes our way.


Extracts: A Field Guide for Iconoclasts

The Cloud Reckoner

A young and adventureous female writer describes scientists and technicians in Antarctica. Ms. Wheeler transforms 7-month in science camps into a refreshing exposition of people and places. Ms. Wheeler is not of the touchy-feely kind. At a fast clip she instead surprises with delightful stories of encounters with a different breed of people in a different land. "Terra Incognita" is not all ice but also mountains and deserts and abundant life. As a scientist I felt at times described like a caged animal on display. She pokes fun of subjects and self that the feeble may not always like. Her book made me laugh and smile often. It still does.

The people in Ms. Wheeler's book reminded me of companions that I lived with in close quarters working on Arctic research vessels. She succeeds very well to reveal the essence of men and women who live science. With humor and gripping commentary she depicts the human side of science. This is also new travel writing at its very best since Bruce Chatwin stopped writing. As Ms. Wheeler's first book on travels in Chile, "Terra Incognita" reflects a healthy thirst for life and wanderlust.

Sara Wheeler's journey to Antarctica began as a side trip. While researching a book on Chile, she flew to its southernmost point, King George Island, off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.
"Standing on the edge of the ice field in a wind strong enough to lean on, squinting in the buttery light, it was as if I were seeing the earth for the very first time," she writes. "I felt less homeless than I have ever felt anywhere, and I knew immediately that I had to return."
"Terra Incognita" is the story of that return. It offers a fascinating snapshot of modern day scientists who are expanding the frontiers of polar research in Antarctica, framed within an engaging and well-researched history of human adventure on this most inhospitable of continents.
Wheeler's book is filled with fascinating characters, their portraits sketched with affection and humor: the scientists, flyboys and dreamers she meets in field stations and camps; legendary explorers such as Scott, Amundsen and Shackleton, whose lives are vividly rendered through excerpts from their writings; and ultimately, the great landscape itself.
"The landscape drew my thoughts away from worldly things, away from the thousand mechanical details of my outward life," Wheeler writes of the spiritual aspects of her Antarctic sojourn. "I had found the place where, loosed from my cultural moorings, I could find the space to look for the higher power, whatever it was, that loomed over the snow fields."
By sharing her own responses to the landscape, as well as describing how other people have responded to Antarctica as a place and an idea throughout history, Wheeler has crafted a highly personal book that also educates the reader about the continent's history, geography and climate.
I would recommend this book to any reader interested in nature, science, or history, who wants to take "the last great journey" with an engaging and funny guide.

Having read the reviews of other people I feel moved to add my comments. I have worked in Antarctic science and tourism for ten years, including one continuous period of 39 months on the ice.

I was working on one of the "Bawdy British", "Toilet Humour" bases when Ms Wheeler came visiting on an all-expenses-paid, freebie holiday that would cost Mr or Mrs Normal more than U$100,000 if he/she tried to repeat the trip. I.E. Forget about it being within the reach of anyone "normal".

(i) We didn't know who she was (ii) We didn't know why she was coming (iii) We hadn't been told we were supposed to "entertain her" (iV) She arrived at last-call, read "last chance to read/write letters, party with "outsiders" and see others outside nine other winterers for nine months. (v) She didn't attempt to integrate

Consequently, nobody took too much notice of her.

Despite the slagging that the British Antarctic Survey (that still provides more results/$ than USARP) received, she writes well, albeit dreamily at times. The most interesting point, that many readers might not have noticed is that after trip 1 to Antarctica Sara hadn't really understood what the big white is all about. Only after trip 2, where she gets the chance to spend a few weeks isolated in a caboose does she begin to catch on...

"Terra Incognita" is British travel writer Sara Wheeler's report on her two United States Government sponsored stays in Antarctica. It's also an easy introduction into the high and low points of polar exploration and into some of the kinds of current scientific work now being conducted there by men and women from several nations.

Author Wheeler's time with the American National Science Foundation's Artists' and Writers' Program was spent during both a sunlit polar summer and during the darkness of an Antarctic winter. She stayed with or visited primarily Americans, British and New Zealanders, and within these communities, colorful characters abounded among visitors and scientific staff alike.

The book has the patented insights and observations and the thorough and meticulous research readers have come to expect from Ms. Wheeler in works such as "Travels in a Thin Country" and in "Evia." When staging in New Zealand for her upcoming adventure, she killed some time in an arcade. While there, she noted that one of the table soccer games didn't have teams from say, Brazil and New Zealand but, instead, had Jews and Nazis competing for goals. Later in her story, she mentions Antarctic temperatures, which are often so low as to be incomprehensible to many of us. She helps us understand the reality of such cold when she describes tossing boiling water into the air and watching it freeze before it falls to the ground. Her research on polar explorers is comprehensive enough (and tawdry enough) to include speculation on the possible extra-marital adventures of Robert Falcon Scott's wife.

The writing isn't bad. If Sara Wheeler became howling mad, and were committed to languish in some wretched Bedlam, the ravings she smuggled out to her publisher (scribbled on toilet paper squares, no doubt) would be better than much of what does actually find its way into print. Yet, at least to this reviewer, reading "Terra Incognita" was much like wading through giant cotton balls or, perhaps, snow. There was also the feeling that the author was undergoing an intense spiritual or emotional crisis during the time she spent researching her polar opus. Perhaps this was just her reaction to the frozen immensity of the place and to the darkness of the existential void that surrounded her during the polar winter.

Ms. Wheeler says in her introduction that "Antarctica was my love affair." She also notes "...the reach of the imagination extends far beyond the snow fields." Quixotically, for a travel writer, she says, elsewhere that, "the most foreign territory will always lie within."

On balance, there's enough good material woven into "Terra Incognita" for it to rate four stars among Sara Wheeler fans. For the casual reader, the rating might drift toward three stars.