Lonely Planet Antarctica (Country Travel Guide)

Delivery Time: 7 to 15 Working Days Format: Book

Discover Antarctica
Feel the salty kiss of sea mist when nearby whales exhale their startlingly loud 'ffffffffffffffffff' next to your boat
Sneak a peak a the secret harbor of Deception Island, where you can sail inside a restless volcano
Pay homage to intrepid explorers at their base camps, where objects remain eerily preserved a century later
In This Guide
Five authors, 30 specialists, a supporting cast of thousands of emperor penguins
Expanded coverage of environmental issues, climate change and ways travelers can make a difference
Complete pre-trip planning information for visits by air, private yacht, cruise ship or resupply vessel
Content updated daily - visit lonelyplanet.com

Just looking at the hauntingly sculpted blues, vast horizon-touching Shelves, and towering behemoths of Antarctica's ice formations makes the traveler know why she wants to go there and why she needs a good guidebook. Lonely Planet has once again done its homework. In addition to a thorough and succinct history section, useful overviews of Antarctic tour companies, information about how to plan your trip, detailed maps, and interesting facts about the places you'll visit, this book includes a 32-page color wildlife guide that introduces you to Chinstrap penguins, elephant seals, and eight types of whales.

LP has sought out the experts on Antarctic issues to write about science, environmental, and exploration issues. Shaded boxes offer in-depth highlights about topics such as traveling by zodiac (the small inflatable boats used by tour companies--ideal for cruising among "bergy bits"), Antarctic fiction, glaciology, and icebergs: "The Antarctic ice sheet is the iceberg 'factory' of the Southern Ocean. The total volume of ice calved from the ice sheet each year is about 2300 cubic km, and it has been estimated that there are about 300,000 icebergs in the Southern Ocean at any one time."

This book offers sage advice and is not afraid of the stark and sometimes dangerous realities of traveling to such a harsh and foreboding land: "If you fall overboard, you will die. Although this may not be true in every single case, it is almost certain, for human survival in the -1.8°C water of the Southern Ocean is calculated in minutes. Since drowning is thought by some to be preferable to freezing to death, one bit of only half-cynical advice for those who fall overboard is to swim as hard as you can for the bottom."