17 Feb 2023

The Solemn Surrounds of Scott's Hut at Cape Evans

Today we visited Scott's Hut at Cape Evans on Ross Island, deep in the Ross Sea from where Heritage Adventurer had anchored, and stood by the very table where he and his men ate dinner. Scott and his hand-picked team of Wilson, Oates, Evan and Bowers left this haven on their gruelling journey to the South Pole only to succumb to exposure and starvation on the return journey - a mere 17 kilometres short of safety.

We had time to take in the cosy atmosphere of Scott's Hut, complete with pony stables, reindeer-skin sleeping bags; tins of Lipton's Coffee & Chicory; a well-thumbed copy of the Illustrated London News dated February 11 1908; and even a mummified Emperor Penguin lying on Scott's table.

The fact that the Hut looks much as it did 110 years ago is due to the herculean efforts of the Antarctic Heritage Trust, whose small team spent 7 years planning, restoring the flooded and ice-filled hut and conserving 11,500 of its artefacts. We were lucky to have the Trust's project manager on board as guest lecturer and raconteur who shared many of the team's triumphs with us.

Image from file (c): M. Snedic