Antarctica, exploring the white continent

London, 1893. Professor Sir John Murray gave a lecture at the Royal Geographical Society on the Challenger oceanographic expedition, which sailed in Antarctic waters between 1872 and 1876. In his lecture, Murray proposed the need to organize new expeditions to "resolve outstanding geographical doubts in the South".

That lecture was the beginning of what is now known as the "Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration," which spanned from 1897 to 1922. During those 25 years, numerous expeditions and explorers, motivated by a certain adventurous romanticism and patriotism, set out with few resources and many adversities to explore Antarctica and reach the South Pole, a feat achieved by Norwegian Roald Amundsen in 1911.

A century after that golden age of Antarctic exploration, the so-called sixth continent exerts a great attraction for those travelers who see Antarctica as perhaps the most remote and inhospitable destination on the planet. Its glaciers, fjords, and wildlife captivate all those who dare to follow in the footsteps of the great polar explorers.

This is the case for the explorer and writer Patrick Woodhead who, on one of his trips to Antarctica, was caught in a snowstorm and had to spend a few days inside a tent waiting for the storm to subside. Fascinated by the different shades and hues of white in the Antarctic landscape, he decided to create White Desert with his wife, fellow South African polar explorer Robyn Woodhead.