Why Antarctica?

You may well be wondering why would I want to go to Antarctica. For me it's more why wouldn't I 🙂

When I turned 21 I wrote my first bucket list. On it were many things; from the easy to achieve through to things that, at that age, seemed impossible. On it I set myself a travel target of visiting all 7 continents and 25% of countries (a mere 50ish). I have continued my passion for travel, not always in tourist hot spots but often off the beaten track, or doing things to discover local cultures. Whilst the country target was achievable, visiting the 7th continent has evaded me -mainly due to cost. So, after a series of health scares, and 55 looming, I decided it was time to bite the bullet and take some money out of my pension to fulfil this dream.

Once I had decided to go, the first challenge was to find the right company to go with. Many important factors to consider in my decision:

• Respect for the environment
• Immersive experience without leaving a trace
• Passion for the continent and the nature
• Pairing adventure with making a difference to scientific understanding 
• Cost!

I have chosen to travel with Hx Expeditions. They ticked every box: Hybrid state of the art ships, science centre on board, guest scientists on each voyage to support research across a variety of important areas, experienced expedition team, care and attention to details and an absolute focus on the environment and total respect of the most pristine space on the planet.

In November 2024 I made my booking to travel in November 2025🥳 A year to prepare.

In November 2024 I was morbidly obese and very unfit. The first thing I needed to do was have a focus on my health, getting my physical and mental focus in place. I set myself a target - to be 5 dress sizes smaller by the time I get on the plane. I've dieted on and off my whole life and whilst I lost weight, I always put it back on and more. This time I wanted to make a permanent change so had to take a fundamentally different and life changing approach but without dieting! I bought myself a pair of warm, water & windproof ski trousers 5 sizes smaller and hung them on my wardrobe as my goal trousers where I looked at them every day. Then I set about working on my psychology -why I overate, why I used food as my emotional crutch, why my brain was wired to mindlessly eat. This work was my utter breakthrough. It has unpicked a lifetime of poor relationship with my body and health and allowed me to view food as fuel. Making better choices because that's what my body wanted. I joined a boxercise class thinking I would likely go for a while then give up- but no! A year on and the fabulous Debs who runs it keeps me wanting to go back week after week. I love it, we exercise, we laugh and have fun. Thank you Debs for being amazing. Those close to me have supported me on this journey and I was so thrilled to hit a total weight loss of 5 stone and 5 dress sizes gone and even hit the target early with 5 weeks left to go. The goal trousers are packed and voyaging with me.

Now I will be able to try kayaking without sinking it 😜 

I forgot to mention - I'm travelling solo, none of my friends wanted to come so I go alone. 

Live for today, tomorrow is not guaranteed.