In The Footsteps of Shackleton  

On Thursday night 28.10.04 the members of Donaghadee Rotary Club were transported from The Stables Groomsport to the wilds of the South Atlantic courtesy of their guest speaker Shane Wolsey. Shane a member of Bangor Rotary Club was recounting a trip he took to the South Atlantic last March.  

He introduced his presentation by displaying photographs of the wild life and scenery of Antarctica using PowerPoint. Shane refreshed the club members’ memory of the details of Shackleton’s trans Antarctic expedition of 1914-1916, which turned out to be an incredible journey of survival.

Part of this expedition involved Shackleton, Worsley and Crean trekking across South Georgia. It was this part of Shackletons journey that Shane Wolsey’s party were going to retrace and as it were walk in Shackletons footsteps.  

The party consisted of 11 trekkers and 3 guides. The expedition sailed to South Georgia and established a base camp. They left their base camp at 0530 hrs and trekked across the snow for 11 hours before making camp for the night. The group camped on a crevasse, which was liberally dotted with 40ft holes. They awakened at 0330hrs and broke camp at 0530hrs and set off again. This time they had to cross crevasses 10 ft to 100ft deep some up to 40ft wide. The group rendezvoused with their ship at Fortuna Bay after walking for 15 hours. They later visited Shackletons grave in Grituicken and afterwards sailed to the Falkland Islands then South Argentina.  

Shane Wolsey held his audience spellbound throughout his presentation using photographs he had taken on the trip, which raised some £4500 for charity.  

President Norwood Steele thanked Shane for his terrific talk and magnificent photographs which had greatly impressed the club members.   

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