No one of us whose privilege it was to be there will forget our first sight of the penguins, our first meal of seal meat, or that first big berg along which we coasted close in order that London might see it on the film. Hardly had we reached the thick pack, which prevailed after the suburbs had been passed, when we saw the little Adélie penguins hurrying to meet us. Great Scott, they seemed to say, what's this, and soon we could hear the cry which we shall never forget.
"Aark, aark," they said, and full of wonder and curiosity, and perhaps a little out of breath, they stopped every now and then to express their feelings, "and to gaze and cry in wonder to their companions; now walking along the edge of a floe in search of a narrow spot to jump and so avoid the water, and with head down and much hesitation judging the width of the narrow gap, to give a little standing jump across as would a child, and running on the faster to make up for its delay.
Again, coming to a wider lead of water necessitating a plunge, our inquisitive visitor would be lost for a moment, to reappear like a jack-in-the-box on a nearer floe, where wagging his tail, he immediately resumed his race towards the ship. Being now but a hundred yards or so from us he pokes his head constantly forward on this side and on that, to try and make out something of the new strange sight, crying aloud to his friends in his amazement, and exhibiting the most amusing indecision between his desire for further investigation and doubt as to the wisdom and propriety of closer contact with so huge a beast."
Apsley Cherry-Garrard in The Worst Journey in the World
Nach dem Urlaub wird so mancher etwas zu erzählen haben. "Die schlimmste Reise der Welt" hat jedoch ein Brite absolviert: Apsley Cherry-Garrard war bei der Antarktis-Expedition 1910-1913 dabei, einer "erstklassigen Tragödie", wie er es selbst nannte. (…) Cherry-Garrard, adeliger Herkunft und klassischer Philologe, muss hart um die Teilnahme an der Expedition kämpfen. Ein beträchtlicher Geldbetrag erleichtert der Expeditionsleitung schließlich die Entscheidung. Es ist die bis dato größte wissenschaftliche Expedition Englands. Er ist 24 Jahre alt und das jüngste Mitglied der Expedition, als diese 1910 in die Antarktis aufbricht. Ohne Zähne und ohne seine zwei besten Freunde, aber lebend wird er drei Jahre später von seiner Fahrt mit der "Terra Nova" zurückkehren. oe1.orf.at
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