Sundowner: Autumn/Winter 2019
Published twice a year and complimentary to A&K’s past and future guests, Sundowner is packed with the hottest destinations and insights on what’s trendy in travel. Featuring articles by some of the industry’s most renowned travel writers and our expert staff, it’s guaranteed to give you wanderlust… Sign up to receive your copy here: https://www.abercrombiekent.co.uk/new-newsletter-signup
Published twice a year and complimentary to A&K’s past and future guests, Sundowner is packed with the hottest destinations and insights on what’s trendy in travel. Featuring articles by some of the industry’s most renowned travel writers and our expert staff, it’s guaranteed to give you wanderlust…
Sign up to receive your copy here: https://www.abercrombiekent.co.uk/new-newsletter-signup
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SOUTH POLE<br />
A&K’S FOUNDER GEOFFREY KENT FULFILS A<br />
LIFELONG DREAM AND TRAVELS TO THE SOUTH POLE<br />
ON ONE OF HIS INSPIRING EXPEDITIONS<br />
When I was young in the post-war decades in Kenya,<br />
I ran wild on our family farm, Kiamweri. Located<br />
in a place called South Kinangop, in the foothills<br />
of the Aberdare mountains, my family’s land was as green as an<br />
emerald, dappled in golden sunlight, and often carpeted with<br />
wild blue salvia (similar to bluebells) and fiery pink drum lilies<br />
that bloomed as big as a man’s face.<br />
In this dream-like landscape of colour, I ironically was<br />
obsessed with whiteness. My father – an Army officer and<br />
always the action man – gave me a copy of Alfred Lansing’s<br />
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage when it was published<br />
in 1959. This epic book inspired in me the greatest admiration<br />
for Sir Ernest Shackleton, my hero of heroes; as well as what<br />
would become a long-standing desire to enjoy my own<br />
incredible voyage and to visit the white desert of Antarctica.<br />
I achieved my dream recently, a mere 60 years later, when<br />
along with seven intrepid guests (now friends), we visited<br />
Antarctica and reached the South Pole on one of my ‘Inspiring<br />
Expeditions by Geoffrey Kent’.<br />
When most people speak of having been to Antarctica, they<br />
have travelled by cruise ship from Ushuaia to the Antarctic<br />
Peninsula, a 1,300-kilometre chain of mountains and volcanoes<br />
that juts north towards South America. My expedition was<br />
to a dramatically different destination. The Antarctica that<br />
I’m talking about can’t be accessed by cruise ship. To get to<br />
the South Pole, you need a plane and skis or snowmobiles.<br />
Antarctica is vast – mind-bogglingly big. To put it in<br />
perspective, from our base inside the Antarctic Circle, to get to<br />
the South Pole required an eight-hour flight, a refuelling stop<br />
and the crossing of a time-zone.<br />
This expedition was three years in the making. This may seem<br />
like a long time to plan, but there was a good reason for the<br />
long preamble: while I dreamed of getting to the South Pole like<br />
Shackleton, unlike Shackleton, I wanted to do it in comfort and<br />
five-star style.<br />
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