Out of the Ice

Travel Guide

Antarctica

The landscape of Antarctica is a cold and barren place to be. It’s also a place of wonder for scientists who are there to analyse goings on and changes at the whaling stations. The landscape is evoked with chilling, raw and gripping language:

“Penguins the size of small children, plump black and white bodies, robust little wings, propelled out of the sea and flew high onto the pack ice, chattering wildly beneath an Antarctic sky so vast and pale and clear it looked like it might shatter at any moment” . “Migratory. We were all migratory”

The descriptions of the wildlife brings them to life, and the coldness of the ice seeps through the pages as you read. The language and setting are one of isolation, starkness and often  suffocating, but always chilling

Kate is working for the Australian Antarctic Division for twelve months.You can only imagine what an Australian would make of the cold! Imagine then, realising that there has been some human activity before you and your team arrived!

Whaling stations

Fredelighavn is the abandoned whaling station in the novel:

1961 Antarctic Treaty

“In 1961, South Safety Island had come under the Antarctic Treaty, and in 1973 Placid Bay and Fredeglighavn Whaling Station with it, and been set as an Exclusion Zone, recognised as an exceptional wildlife-breeding site”

Despite the landscape all being white, icy, remote and cold, the atmosphere around the abandoned  village and whaling station of Fredelighavn, are what really chills – especially when there are clear signs of life that prove someone and something has been here perhaps moments before you. This is supposed to be an exclusion zone except there’s something very creepy going on. Normally wild yet gentle animals outside show signs of disturbance and even violence. A dead animal lies in a spot it could not have got there itself. A scientist with no answers and unsure if she wants the answers to the strange and frightening questions she has.

There is a real history of these whaling stations to be explored –  in real life, Leith Harbour, established in 1909, was home to the largest of seven whaling stations built near the mouth of Stromness Bay. Grytviken Harbour  was really once a large Norwegian whaling base , home to 300 workers employed in rendering the blubber, meat, bones and viscera of catches into oil. As the surrounding oceans were over-exploited however, whale populations plummeted.

USA – Masssachusetts – Nantucket Island

The American setting of the novel and this is where Erling’s home when he wasn’t stationed on South Safety Island. There is a Whaling museum here and in the novel one of the characters goes back there to find something out and to investigate certain issues in the story.  The museum is actually very much part of the island’s history too as it’s located in an 1846 candle factory, complete with a whale skeleton, artifacts & a roof deck.

Visiting Chatham on Cape Cod with  a ferry ride across the Nantucket would be nice if it wasn’t for the reasons they’re there in the book!

Italy -Venice

Only a brief interlude in Italy but one which sees a scientist go looking for answers and getting a bit lost in the maze of streets around St Mark’s Square, The Rialto Bridge and Porto Marghera. This is not on the booktrail as the visit is extremely brief. The main focus is Antarctica and the mysteries there.