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Cyber Hannah: Last night I wandered out into the bleak town to find a drink
Nov 3, 2004 18: 56 EST
Published on October 27, 2004)
What woman would travel alone to the end of the Earth, make a bee-line for the local bar, pick up three sailors and share a cab home with them in the middle of an Antarctic night? That would be Hannah, of course! Bet you the guys thought they'd impress her, until she told them what brought her to Punta!
The smiling landlady served me a beer
"Last night I wandered out into the damp, bleak town to find a drink and maybe some company, the empty streets had an air of curfew about them. I walked into a cheerful looking, but near empty café and the smiling landlady served me a beer.
They introduced themselves as the crew of the Condor
Near the bottom of the beer I was just deciding to head home when I was joined by four lads speaking English. They quickly introduced themselves as the crew of the Condor, an ice-class ship, employed in military charter jobs and currently in dry dock for maintenance.
'the Croat'
Paddy the Irishman, Mike and Mick the two Scots and the Croatian, known simply as 'the Croat' are exactly the sort of motley crew you would expect to meet in a bar at the bottom of the world. They welcome me warmly and treat me with the utter respect of perfect working gentlemen.
Squeezing penguins
There is something old-fashioned and quite charming about their sense of how to behave with me, and I appreciate it enormously. Nevertheless, by the end of the evening I have managed to lower the tone a little and we roar with laughter about, among other things, squeezing penguins to procure the quarter pint of oil we are assured they are good for. Reading this back I suspect maybe you had to be there.
Full of stories of the dangers of walking alone on the streets of Punta Arenas the boys delivered me back to my hotel in a taxi and I fell deeply asleep.
Two beers and one whiskey is generally not even enough
Sadly the sleep was very broken. At about two I woke up feeling violently ill, nausea and pains in my stomach. I thought it might be what I had drunk, but two beers and one whiskey is generally not even enough to give me a hangover, so it seemed odd. I'm afraid I have very little else to report about the next 24 hours. I stayed in my room afflicted with chronic diarrhea (have no idea how to spell that and nor does my spell check!) and persistent vomiting.
You really don't want to know the details
I did manage to drag myself up to the airport at 3.30, and was delighted to find my luggage arriving on the flight from Santiago just as I had been told it would. This cheered me up enormously, as I had totally convinced myself that it would be lost forever.
Here ends today's dispatch. You really don't want to know the details of the rest of my bed confined day. Suffice to say, it's not nice.
Hannah McKeand, Owen Jones, Craig Mathieson, Fiona Taylor, and Denise Martin (leader) will attempt to reach the South Pole skiing from Patriot Hills. They’ll count on a resupply at Thiels mountains.
31 years old, the UK woman has decided to drop everything, mortgage the house, and go for it. And it’s not just a one-off expedition. Hannah is embarked on a yearlong triple-threat that has already taken her to the deserts of Afghanistan and Libya. After the expedition on the Antarctic ice she will take part in a sailing race around the world.
Hannah uses Contact 3.0 for live updates from her expeditions.
Image from the Bar at hotel Los Navegantes, Punta Arenas, Chile.
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