"I Rather be a Sparrow than a Snail - Yes I would - If I only could"

Having not travelled outside our delightful isle for many, many years I found myself in Svalbard in January ( as regular readers of my blog will know). It has unleashed - there is no other word - the wanderlust in me. Think Phineas Fogg, the Ancient Mariner, Ulysses and Star Lord. Now the world is my oyster and I see unbounded vistas opening up before me. Well as much as a Civil Service pension will allow.

To spread my wings - where? To the East and the lure of the Orient, the ancient Silk Route, the Forbidden City, or the fabulous Pearl Isles of the Java Sea. To the West,  to the Land of Opportunity, to the wide Pacific? North once again to the Arctic and beyond. No South, that is where I want to wander as I wonder.

Places that conjure up adventure, discovery and ice. South Georgia, the Ross Sea, Mordor (aka New Zealand).....Antarctica. I dismissed Australia as being too far north -for God's sake some of it's near the Equator. As for New Zealand, I love their lamb but isn't it just one big "Lord of the Rings' theme park?

I've nothing against South America. It's very big and long, and inspired Simon and Garfunkel, but that was a long time ago. Yet for some reason I felt drawn further and further South until I was at the tip of that vast continent - Tierra Del Fuego. Penguins, Seals, Whales, Polar Bears and lots of other stuff. Perfect.

My hols have been sorted. TdelF in June, via the Ascension Islands, South Georgia and the South Shetland Islands. Now all I need is a suitably large icebreaker.