Katey Buchanan went on a fascinating journey last November to Antarctica in memory of the epic journey there by Ernest Shackleton’s expedition a century ago.

For Katey (pictured) there was an interesting family connection as she is a second cousin three times removed (generational) from the explorer himself on her mother’s side.

The expedition, Beyond Endurance, was organised by Pat Falvey. Katey applied, mentioned the Shackleton family connection and was lucky enough to get a place on the expedition.

The journey began at Dublin Airport and then on to Madrid and from there to Buenos Aires in Argentina. The next flight took them to Ushuaia in southern Argentina, where they boarded the ‘M. V. Ushuaia’, the same name as the port from which they sailed south.

Katey’s bag was lost during the air journey and so she had to get fitted out again at Ushuaia. She was disappointed, because in the lost luggage there were two little stones which she took from the garden of Ernest Shackleton’s Irish birthplace in Kilkea, near Athy in Kildare, which she wanted to place on his grave in South Georgia, as other members of her family had done previously.

They sailed from the port of Ushuaia on the 9th November, out through the Beagle Channel towards the South Atlantic Ocean with relatively calm seas. On board, they heard lectures from biologists, bird watchers and experts on Shackleton. By the 13th they reached King Haakon Bay in South Georgia, sighting land at a bright 4:30am.

To commemorate the Shackleton Expedition a team of 25 volunteers trekked from King Haakon bay, where they landed, to the other side of the Island on a two night ‘traverse’, enduring the inhospitable ice, snow and the katabatic winds which blew away equipment.

The ‘Ushuaia’ sailed around to meet them on the other side of the island at Fortuna Bay, where the support party joined with the traverse party and the 80-strong Irish group trekked the last leg into Stromness Whaling Station, where Shackleton was greeted so many years ago.

Katey said it was a magical moment to be standing in the same spot that her relative stood looking down on the Norwegian whaling station.

They headed into Grytviken, the capital of South Georgia, where Ernest Shackleton is buried. It’s a place encircled by a rampart of steep-walled mountains where another whaling station has been the centre of human activity there since 1904. The whole group had a ceremony at the graveside of Shackleton and then went to see the cross that the crew of the ‘Endurance’ placed in his memory.

They sailed further into the Southern Ocean from South Georgia to the South Orkney Islands and then to Elephant Island, which was another highlight of the trip.

Katey says: “It was euphoric to say the least, to actually stand on that island that the men of the ‘Endurance’ reached safely in three small boats and for some it became their home on solid land after five months of camping on drifting ice floes.

“Knowing that his men would never survive on the desolate spot, ‘The Boss’ Shackleton decided to attempt an incredible seventeen-day, 800-mile journey by boat in freezing hurricane conditions, to the nearest civilisation– South Georgia Island– to get help.”

Once on land, Shackleton and two of his men trekked across the mountains of South Georgia, finally reaching the island’s remote, whaling stations where they organised a rescue team, and returned to save all of the men left behind on Elephant Island. Not one member of the expedition died.

The Beyond Endurance team had done its homework so that there were experts on hand to discuss the wildlife of the places they sailed to as well as the history of that first expedition. Katey has many fond memories of the journey and the camaraderie of her fellow travellers.