The Digital Daily

Volume 1, Number 1

News from the Real World of Virtual Antarctica

December 12, 1995

After several months of preparations, logistical and technological challenges and some stiff setbacks, we're actually on the road, headed south for the White Continent. Even getting this far was no piece of southern cake. Five days ago we air-freighted a thousand pounds of high-tech satellite communications gear (the stuff spies use) from London to Ushuaia, Argentina, the southern-most town in the world, and the point from whence we set sail to Antarctica.

Knowing relations between England and Argentina have not been, in recent years, exactly buddy-buddy, we wondered about the wisdom of this routing, and at this writing I still don't know if all this gear has cleared customs and duty, or if Kevin Twidle and Jonathan Chester, our advance team in Ushuaia, are in a pub celebrating or in jail.

We had our own set of hurdles. I arrived at the San Francisco Airport at 4:30 am Sunday morning with 11 pieces of gear, including a digital camera, a 100 lb digital photo printer, a power Mac and monitor, a CD ROM writer, and several pieces of unmatching luggage (crime of fashion). I had no idea whether I could get all this on the plane that was booked full, and whether I would have to pay through the nose to do so, and there was no budget for such. Luckily, smooth-talking, cool-walking Perry Robertson, who regularly dispatches rafts and gear to far-away places around the world, also arrived at 4:30, and used his considerable charms and magic to convince the counter police to send our gear south. It worked, and five and a half hours later, we repeated the same exercise in Miami, but this time I mimicked the Perry-meister and it was smooth flying.

In Miami we met up with several other members of our team, including Dr. George Fuller, who was on the original Sobek exploratory down the Omo River in Ethiopia in 1973 (George hasn't changed a bit...his wild beard is still flaming red), and my friend Steve Marks (a Hollywood agent and single guy who is hoping to find love on the 7th continent). Steve has joined me on expeditions dogsledding above the Arctic Circle, climbing Mt. Rainier, and rafting down wild rivers in Uzbekistan, Khrigizistan, Tasmania, and the South Fork of the American River. Steve showed up looking like the ghost of Christmas Morning-after, pale and drawn with slow-drip eyes...he has some sort of exotic flu, which is not exactly the best condition for an Antarctica expedition, or to impress the penguins.

We gathered at the appointed time to board the Ladeco plane non-stop to Santiago, and upon counting heads we discovered one was missing...another friend, Dr. Diane McEwen (who made the first descents of the Euphrates and Coruh Rivers with me in the late 70s). At the last minute she came running across the terminal, dragging her 90 pounds of luggage. She had arrived on a late TWA flight, and couldn't find a porter, so wrestled her bags a crooked mile across terminals to our gate. Then, on board, it was a halcyon night for the 8 hour flight.

Now we're waiting in Santiago until tomorrow morning when we catch the final flight to Ushuaia. It is a sweet moment to be here. Back in 1977 I stayed here while preparing for the first descent down an unknown river called the Bio-Bio, one few believed would ever be a viable rafting run as it spills so quickly and briefly down the western slopes of the Andes. But it proved its worth, and became one of the most popular whitewater rafting trips in the world. Now though, it is being dammed, and a sacred flow will soon be silenced forever.

I am doubly excited about this impending expedition...this will be my first time to Antarctica, my seventh continent, and for years, and years I dreamed of making this journey. And, secondly, we are exploring in a way that harks back to my river exploratories of the 70s and 80s: we're trying something that no one has ever attempted: To bring a remote expedition to the homes, offices and classrooms of untold numbers of virtual travelers through the power of the Internet.

Just like any exploratory, a thousand things can go wrong, and many will. We're pushing the edge of the technological and communications envelopes, and we're bringing a lot of duct tape. Tomorrow I hope to rendezvous with polar expert and internet explorer Jonathan Chester, and Kevin Twidle from 7-E Communications (the English company that sets up remote, mobile communications for reporters in Bosnia and other adventurous locations). We have a few hours to attach all the satellite systems to our research vessel the Livonia, and then we begin our crossing of the notoriously rude Drake Passage. Wish us luck, and check in later....
Richard Bangs

Departure Day "D Day" - Friday Dec 8
El Cerrito, USA to Buenos Aires, Argentina

A very very frantic day. Most of the morning was occupied with last minute vital purchases. There are no corner drug stores where we are bound, let alone computer outlets, and FedEx can't deliver. Well, not overnight any way. It wasn't until the fourth store that I found the rare "SCUSCI" 2 to "SCUSCI" 1 connecting cable necessary to enable us to use the heaviest item of our gear, the Kodak Dytransfer printer. The afternoon hiccup was the replacement color monitor refusing to work.

The Bay Area was shrouded in fog all day. This contributed to almost hour's delay in my plane leaving Oakland. After a rather nerve racking sprint between terminals, I caught the Aerolineas flight from LA with only moments to spare. The plane was full. Despite being wedged in between two large people, my state of exhaustion from the frenetic pace of the past days meant that I was able to catch up on sleep.

Saturday Dec 9

Spent the better part of the day in planes or airports - nothing virtual about this part of my journey .

Arrived at Buenos Aires as the sun was setting, having been airborne for 10 hours. Just getting to Tierra del Fuego is a travel marathon and it's still a long long way to Antarctica

Sunday Dec 10
Buenos Aires to Ushuaia

Now finally I really feel like Virtual Antarctica is coming together, though not without considerable physical effort. There is nothing virtual about this aspect of getting to our journey. It was 4 am start to be at the airport by 5 for a 6.15 departure for Ushuia.

My 8 pieces of luggage weighing nearly 300 pounds were the major headache, but I managed to get them on the plane without paying any excess. I went into pitch mode mentioning the expedition, the internet and a group of people I was the vanguard for. It was the magic word "internet" that captured the Aerolineas attendant's interest, and when he asked did I work for Bill Gates I knew I was in with a chance.

The desolate Patagonian landscape we flew over reminded me of the harshness of where we are headed. I will have to savour the trees and greenery of Ushuaia the last vegetation I will see for weeks.

Monday Dec 11
Ushuaia

The excitement of being in Ushuaia again is tempered by the reality of learning that the preparations, installation and testing of the satellites now have to be done in a day, when the ship arrives, because they are locked away in customs sheds. The M's, B's, and C satellite transmitters cannot be released unless we are to import them to Argentena and this would be way too costly and take several days just to do the paperwork.

We took the opportunity all the same to find last minute supplies such as truck batteries and chargers. We began testing all the digital cameras this afternoon and we are learning the hard way. The technical wizard, Kevin Twidle, discovered how to delete all his images from the Kodak DC 40 digital camera by accident. The master photographer, yours truly, discovered it is very hard to take a QuickTime panorama with a flat battery in the Kodak DC 460, and the Gen X expeditioner, Kevin Baumert, discovered that you never go anywhere in Patagonia without a jacket. As a wind squall swept across the harbour he began turning blue while helping to steady the tripod.

Better to have these problems now than a week into the trip.

A dinner of local crab awaits - we must away....
Jonathan Chester

After lugging my bags through a personal record six airports in 48 hours, I have arrived in Ushuaia, Argentina, "the southernmost town in the world" and starting point of the Virtual Antarctica expedition. Almost invariably, when traveling to such remote destinations there are bottlenecks between the departure and arrival that alters a carefully planned itinerary. Yet these anecdotes are the same ones that make for interesting conversations at parties and the like.

Yesterday testified to this: apparently one of Miami's daredevil forklift operators unintentionally loaded some of our plane's sheet metal siding, along with the pallet he was packing into the cargo area. After a period of uncertainty, my flight from Miami to Buenos Aires was delayed 90 minutes causing me to arrive too late for my connection to Ushuaia. Despite speaking almost no Spanish, all I could do was take advantage of my misfortune and make the best of my day in Buenos Aires.

Often times people claim that the best thing about traveling overseas is meeting fellow travelers and exchanging stories - there seems to be a certain breed that one encounters off the beaten path. Buenos Aires -- B.A. -- proved to be no exception. I met up with a fellow American from Colorado, Rick Olsen, who had come South to do some mountaineering but had fallen into the same set of circumstances that kept me bottled in Buenos Aires.

Fighting every grain of my being not to absurdly respond to Argentineans in French, I toured the downtown area on foot with my compatriot. He described his epic three-year bike trip from California to Tierra del Fuego while I explained the nature of Terraquest. He had many insights to share regarding the perils and thrills of such an expedition and was fascinated by the creativity and uniqueness of Virtual Antarctica. Who knows, I thought, perhaps a bike trip is in the cards for a future Terraquest expedition!

I awoke at the ripe hour of 3:45 am, fearful of missing my flight and distrustful of the promised wake up call at 6:30. I boarded my plane on time and the rest of the journey was hassle free, except for the surprise change of planes in Rio Gallego, a small town in southern Argentina described by Rick as "a real hole". Suddenly we were landing, and the handful of passengers continuing to Ushuaia were ushered onto a new plane. I was welcomed to Ushuaia by glorious snow capped peaks and a smiling Jonathan Chester, the trip's Antarctic guru who will be leading the expedition.

My hope is that the actual Antarctica expedition is as much of an adventure as getting to Ushuaia. Judging from the chilly mountain breezes in this frontier town and the pile of video equipment that I am trying to master, I think perhaps it will the adventure of a lifetime. I am thrilled to be aboard this expedition and look forward to the technical, logistical, linguistical (the ship's crew is Estonian, another language I do not speak), and climatic challenges in the coming two weeks.

I hope that the virtual travelers tuning in through cyberspace will also share in the ups, downs, spills and thrills of the trip. Whether your procrastinating while writing a paper at school, dialing in from home or work, or in one of those trendy new 'cyber cafes' in American metropolises, don't go away - we haven't even reached Antarctica yet....
Kevin Baumert

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