DAY 1 ANTARCTICA TRIP

1 March 2011

JINDABYNE - SYDNEY

First day of autumn and the first day of our trip of a lifetime.

We woke early this morning to howling winds and forecast temperature here in the mountains of 11C. Forecast was for gale force winds with a reminder to secure everything. Sydney on the other hand was expecting 32C.

Our 5 year old grand-daughter told her mother we were ‘going by bus, then plane and by boat across the seven seas’. When shown on the world globe where we were going she wanted to know why we would go that far.

Well she was not quite right. We left by car to Cooma, then caught a bus to Canberra, a train to Sydney.  We thought it was a relaxing way to go to Sydney.  It proved to be otherwise.  Tomorrow we will be on a plane for Buenos Aires for our first taste of South America and then a few days later we will fly to Ushuaia and go on cruise to the white continent.

We have been dreaming of going to Antarctica for many years. Last October an opportunity came up to join a group of Lithuanian skiers who intend to ski on the white continent. This was just too good to believe for my ski crazy husband. So here we are today on our way to see this amazing continent.

It has been a rush to get ready for this trip as we have just moved. A very early start this morning to make sure everything was in order and of all things hubby forgot his hat. He never travels without his hat. I suppose there is a first for everything. So here we are rocking and rolling in the train as it heads towards Sydney. For all our overseas trips we will now have to allow a day to get to the airport but we won;t go by train again.  It was just too tiring and long.  From home to hear nearly eight hours.  It would have been quicker by car.