Team TCJ

With the Ice Team getting ready to start their long journey home any moment now, I thought I would momentarily distract you all with this wonderful picture of our dear trustee Joanna Lumley and friends during her recent visit to Bangladesh. Joanna was joined by expedition leaders Ran Fiennes and Anton Bowring on a short trip to the country to help raise awareness of Seeing is Believing, t…

The Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897 to 1899 was the first expedition to winter in the Antarctic region. It was also the first scientific expedition to the continent itself. At the age of 25 Roald Amundsen was first mate on the expedition aboard the Norwegian-built whaling ship the Belgica. Unfortunately the vessel became locked in the Antarctic pack ice at 70°30′S off Alexander Island,…

Between 1892–1893 Carl Anton Larsen led the first Norwegian expedition to Antarctica aboard the ship “Jason” to explore the possibility of whaling in Antarctica. Larsen became the first person to ski on the continent on the Larsen Ice Shelf, subsequently named after him. He is also remembered as collecting the first Antarctic fossils.

Between 1839 – 1843 James Clark Ross a British naval officer led an Antarctic expedition in command of the vessels HMS Erebus and HMS Terror with the aim of finding the magnetic south pole. He and his crew charted much of the coastline of Antarctica. In 1841, James Ross discovered the Ross Sea, Victoria Land, and the volcanoes Mount Erebus and Mount Terror, which were named after the expedition’s…

In 1820, several expeditions claimed to have been the first to have sighted Antarctica, with the very first being the Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev on 28th January 1820. The first landing is alleged to have taken pace just over a year later when American Captain John Davis, a sealer, and his men were the first recorded humans to have claimed to…

Between 1772-1775 The British exploring expedition led by James Cook was the first to Circumnavigate Antarctica. It was also the first to cross the Antarctic Circle on Jan 17, 1773 reaching 67° 15′ S by 39° 35′ E. Despite his remarkable first circumnavigation of Antarctica, Cook unfortunately did not manage to find the southern continent itself, but came extremely close. It is believed he was…

It is in stark contrast that, while the expedition team busy themselves with their scientific studies in the remotest part of the world, Ranulph Fiennes, Joanna Lumley and I spent a few days last week in Dhaka,   Bangladesh. Dhaka is one of the world’s most densely populated cities. Whereas Brian, Ian, Richmond, Rob and Spencer have an area the size of Britain between them and their nearest…

Antarctica today is a cold, inhospitable desert; however, in the more distant past, the climate was much warmer. Abundant finds of fossil leaves and wood point to the existence of extensive forestation in earlier geological periods, even to within a few degrees of latitude of the South Pole itself. Dinosaurs, and later, marsupial mammals once roamed across its surface. Leaves and stems belonging…

The entire Coldest Journey team are extremely pleased to announce that our Seeing is Believing fundraising has now passed $1 million. Just a few weeks ago, Ranulph Fiennes, Joanna Lumley and Anton Bowring visited Bangladesh to witness some of the work that Seeing is Believing is doing. Whilst they were there the Ice Team were very fortunate to have had a phone conversation with them. The messag…