“When the virus of restlessness begins to take possession of a wayward man, and the road away from Here seems broad and straight and sweet, the victim must first find in himself a good and sufficient reason for going. This to the practical bum is not difficult. He has a built-in garden of reasons to choose from. Next he must plan his trip in time and space, choose a direction and a destination. And last he must implement the journey. How to go, what to take, how long to stay. This part of the process is invariable and immortal. I set it down only so that newcomers to bumdom, like teen-agers in new-hatched sin, will not think they invented it.
Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike…”
- John Steinbeck, Travels With Charley
While crossing the dreaded Drake Passage bound for Ushuaia today, all on board the National Geographic Explorer had the opportunity to reflect on the personality, temperament, individuality, and uniqueness of the expedition we have just completed.
It seems so long ago that we visited the nesting colonies of black-browed albatross, rockhopper and Magellanic penguins, as well as the British hospitality in the Falkland Islands. South Georgia and her hundreds of thousands of king penguins, elephant seals, and Antarctic fur seals seem to be a distant dream. Even the memories of magnificent icescapes and penguin colonies of the Antarctic Peninsula have eased their way further back in our minds.
We come to this journey with our own built-in garden of reasons. It is surely different than any other journey we have made. And the way in which it touches each of us is very personal. Antarctica, South Georgia, and Falklands have that way.
Late this afternoon we picked up our pilot, and navigated the Beagle Channel to come full circle back to Ushuaia. Familiar birds, landscapes, and sounds surrounded us. But we are not the same as when we departed. This incredible journey has become a part of us, and always we will see differently.
