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hyarrowen For black_bentley - and anyone else who's interested!
The tiny graveyard on South Georgia, just outside the main scientific and admin centre, has more heroes per square metre than most. It's got a sturdy fence to protect it from the seals, and you're landed on the beach right in front of it so you can pay your respects straight away. I don't know the meaning of the star, though it surely has some significance. Those more well-versed in the historyof polar exploration than this geographer will probably know!
Above the graveyard is the end-point of Shackleton Walk, which follows the route he, Crean and Worsley took on the last leg of their epic journey. Not for the faint-hearted, says the guide-book. We were all faint-hearted, and made straight for the museum, post office and shop; or, in the case of the young couple, for the church where they got married. I didn't understand the significance of that route at the time (honestly, there was so much to take in, all the time) so didn't get a picture of the waterfall they scrambled down, but here it is: "shackleton waterfall" - Bing images It's about 1k from the graveyard, so they hiked past this spot on their way to the manager's villa.
Here's the view out to sea from the graveyard. You can see our ship, looking tiny, at the foot of the nearest mountain, just before the dip in the skyline to the further mountains. About a fifteen minute Zodiac ride to the beach. Distances are quite deceptive because the air is either fantastically clear, or...not.
All in all, it isn't a bad view for a graveyard, especially on a day like this! Shackleton's grave famously faces south, so this is more or less his view.
black_bentley - and anyone else who's interested!The tiny graveyard on South Georgia, just outside the main scientific and admin centre, has more heroes per square metre than most. It's got a sturdy fence to protect it from the seals, and you're landed on the beach right in front of it so you can pay your respects straight away. I don't know the meaning of the star, though it surely has some significance. Those more well-versed in the historyof polar exploration than this geographer will probably know!
Above the graveyard is the end-point of Shackleton Walk, which follows the route he, Crean and Worsley took on the last leg of their epic journey. Not for the faint-hearted, says the guide-book. We were all faint-hearted, and made straight for the museum, post office and shop; or, in the case of the young couple, for the church where they got married. I didn't understand the significance of that route at the time (honestly, there was so much to take in, all the time) so didn't get a picture of the waterfall they scrambled down, but here it is: "shackleton waterfall" - Bing images It's about 1k from the graveyard, so they hiked past this spot on their way to the manager's villa.
Here's the view out to sea from the graveyard. You can see our ship, looking tiny, at the foot of the nearest mountain, just before the dip in the skyline to the further mountains. About a fifteen minute Zodiac ride to the beach. Distances are quite deceptive because the air is either fantastically clear, or...not.
All in all, it isn't a bad view for a graveyard, especially on a day like this! Shackleton's grave famously faces south, so this is more or less his view.
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Date: 2023-03-29 03:14 am (UTC)We should all get such views post-mortem!
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Date: 2023-03-29 05:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-03-29 10:04 am (UTC)Re. the star - I think the 9-pointed star is a symbol associated with the family.
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Date: 2023-03-29 11:01 am (UTC)Oh - I hadn't thought of a family connection for the star. We were making all sorts of guesses and no-one came up with that. It's a lovely art-nouveau\art-deco stone, very rough-hewn and in keeping with the man.
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Date: 2023-03-29 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-03-29 10:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-03-31 10:37 am (UTC)But what a beautiful spot for the grave—that view is incredible, and the air must be very clear for those mountains in the distance to be so clearly visible (I think of 'the mountains round were smiling, where sometimes they frowned...')
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Date: 2023-04-01 12:24 am (UTC)As for the grave site - yes, it's so appropriate for Shackleton. In fact his "other self" and right-hand-man Frank Wild, died elsewhere, but his ashes are buried next to him, d'aww; and a young Argentine sailor who died in the 1982 invasion still rests in the same graveyard. I think it's a good place to end up.
I think of 'the mountains round were smiling, where sometimes they frowned...'
Oh, I love that!