Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
There was a real treat when,
near the town of Caldera, I came
upon some major diggings and
learned that this is where the
complete skeletons of 75 pre-
historic whales, which died
between two and seven million
years ago, were recently found.
The skeletons lay side by side,
and what is puzzling palae-
ontologists is that they were
800 metres inland. Did they
beach themselves on a high
tide, or were their remains
moved to the present spot
by an enormous landslide or
earthquake?
december 5
Bernie and Katie are in Santiago, 550 kilometres down the road,
organising the logistics of ending the run. Bernie is working out how
to dispose of the trucks—hopefully we can sell them; if not we'll give
them away—and how to get rid of any other gear we don't need to take
home. He's also booking flights and working with Greg on my flight
from Punta Arenas to the South Pole. Finally, he's checking out the lat-
est information on the roads in the region. It's a lottery, because some
roads that show up on maps no longer exist, while others have snaking
twists and turns that take you way off your route.
It's looking like I'll have two weeks' running left when I fly back
to Chile from the South Pole, but I understand that one of the routes
we'd considered for this leg may be out of the question, because an
active volcano has left a lot of ash in the area. It's the same type of
ash that prevented all flights around northern Europe and Iceland not
long ago.
Eric Philips, my Antarctic guide, has told us that there is a flight
from the South Pole back to Chile on January 19, which I can be on if
I can get to the South Pole the day before. This is going to mean, given
