Bicycling outside Melbourne, Australia, Smith decided
to resurrect a childhood dream of traveling to Antarctica.
After receiving a writer's grant permitting a seven-week
visit, Smith quit his newspaper job, landed a freelance
gig with Time, and headed south. Way south to Mawson, one
of four year-round bases. What follows is a magical
description of Mawson's last days (the base was to be shut
down, with a new, huge complex opening nearby). Smith
witnesses the final run of a geriatric sled dog team, the
very last time dogs would be used in Antarctica, and the
base handover ceremony. The trip had faded to a pleasant
memory when the author was asked by National Geographic if
he would like to spend the summer traveling all around
Antarctica--visiting bases and field camps, the South Pole,
even spending five weeks on a yacht exploring the Antarctic
Peninsula. Smith is the most exceptional of travel writers:
his portraits of people are deeply sympathetic, while his
language is at once lyrical and knowledgeable. Not to be
missed.

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