Aujourd'hui, le 8 février, notre voyage commence. Le Hanse Explorer partira avec le soleil levant, direction le bout du monde.
We'll be travelling from a cape in South America to Africa, stopping at Bouvet Island, where fewer people have been to than the moon. Both capes represent the toughest seas on Earth, but for me it's much more than that. It's completing the loop from the end of human exploration to the beginning of civilization.
The wind was strong at the Cape Horn, and as I stood looking out toward the horizon I would soon travel beyond, I did sense that I was not alone, as if ghosts were carried by the wind.
These were cute at first, but soon we realized that their behaviour was closer to that of wild dogs than cute penguins. They would bark, clumsily coming towards us as if to bite our ankles. It was a bit scary, frankly, but the only way to keep them at bay would be to bark back, and go towards them showing our superior size.
Bouvetoya est un territoire norvégien. C'est un site du patrimoine mondial, et mon père s'est donné comme objectif de tous les visiter. Quand il m'a parlé de Bouvet pour la première fois, la première chose qui m'est venue à l'esprit fut : devrait-on explorer cette ile ou la laisser tranquille? Je n'étais pas si enthousiaste. Je trouvais ce projet typiquement humain: nous avons les moyens d'aller quelque part, allons-y, sans nous poser de questions. Ce qui m'a convaincu, c'est la possibilité d'accomplir un vieux rêve personnel : voguer d'un cap à l'autre, du cap Horn au cap Bonne-Espérance.
