This cache is dedicated to polar explorers for their courage,
persistence, tenacity and sometimes stupidity.
Earnest Shackleton was going to cross the great southern
continent but on the way there he got his boat stuck and (later)
crushed in the sea ice but somehow made it back to South Georgia
Island. The entire ship’s company survived! That’s right, sink your
boat and make your own way back over sea ice then open sea without
GPS, Sat mobiles or any new fangled gizmos. It makes being up a
creek without a paddle seem a bit mundane really.
Roald Amundsen raced Robert Falcon Scott to the South Pole.
Amundsen made it look easy with trained sled dogs and valuable
experience from his exploring in the Arctic.
Robert Falcon Scott made a one way trip to the pole. His party
struggled to the South Pole only to find that Amundsen had already
planted the Norwegian Flag there first. His party died on the
return to base camp. When their bodies were found so too were rock
samples loaded on their sleds. Scott’s party had headed out with
untrained dogs and handlers. Earlier they had even tried to take
ponies! It was a tragic end for them.
South Australia also has a representative of a golden age of
polar exploration – Sir Douglas Mawson. A geologist, Mawson joined
an earlier expedition led by Shackleton to Antarctica. He later
turned down an invitation to join Scott on his fated trip to the
pole, preferring instead to lead his own expedition. This journey
was very nearly his last – his two companions died during the trek.
Mawson fell through the lid of a crevasse and only survived because
his sled remained on the ice above him. This journey is recounted
in his book ‘Home of the Blizzard’.
‘Mawson was an early proponent of conservation. His lobbying led
to the revocation of sealing licences and to the establishment of
Macquarie Island as a nature reserve, and he advocated
international controls of whaling, sealing and penguin slaughter.
Mawson argued, far before his time, that increased scientific
understanding of ecosystems would lead to better managements of
natural resources.’ (Preface, Home of the Blizzard).
Mawson also spent much of his time studying the geology of the
Flinders Ranges. His bust outside Adelaide University (where he was
Professor) on North Terrace near Pulteney Street is flanked by one
rock from Antarctica and one from Arkaroola. For more information,
the Adelaide Museum houses an excellent display on Mawson.
The cache: Mawson was buried at St Jude’s Cemetery in
Brighton. The posted coordinates will take you to Mawson’s grave.
Find on which line of text his name appears. Count this number of
trees to the south of the grave. The cache is located here.
Access Information: The posted coordinates are best
accessed via Brighton Road. Walk to the back of St Jude's church on
the north side and enter the cemetery.
Original cache contents:
- Playing cards - to pass the time in case you get stuck in
Antarctica,
- Stubby holder – see above,
- Light stick – for those long winters,
- Poncho – for the blizzards,
- Stress ball with a map of the world – in case you get
lost.