The Lonely South

The author, a French doctor is selected for a one year posting to the French controlled Antarctic island of Kerguelen in 1953. Accompanying him are 50 others, scientists, administrators, radio operators, meteorologists, cooks, labourers etc. The first half of this books outlines his time spent there as the mission doctor. With a natural attraction to birds and animals, Migot does a good job of explaining all he witnessed and learned while there.

As his year reaches an end and his thought start to turn to home, he realises he would rather not be returning to the churn of ‘normal' life, and as if scripted, he is invited to join an Australian expedition to deliver a team to Australian Antarctic territory to establish and construct a permanent base (to be known as Mawson, after the Australian Antarctic explorer). In a Danish icebreaker they make the journey from Melbourne, collecting Migot and another Frenchman from Kerguelen on the way.

Again Migot explains all in a structured and organised way. The trials of the journey, the icebreaking on the way to the drop off point, the unloading of the equipment (including the prefab building components and the stores and the equipment to last them until reprovisioning), and then the icebreaking on the way out. Following the drop off, they are to travel east to visit two other areas of Antarctica and carry out surveying and magnetic observations, although poor weather hindered these. The journey back to Melbourne (via Kerguelen) brought out the worst of the Southern Ocean weather, where they were hit by high powered storms and were lucky to have made it through the heavy icebeg fields with limited damage.

Migot is a thoughtful character, who by his own admission, prefers his solitude to the company of others, so it makes an interesting read. Better known for his time in Tibet, he writes an engaging and interesting book.

4 stars.