1. Starting out with a map of the continent of Antarctica...notice that the map seems upside down. That is because it was purchased in New Zealand. Their perspective of Antarctica is different than that of ours in the United States. To orient the map to the North, it would need to be turned around. Look for McMurdo Station, the South Pole, and Palmer Station on the Antarctic Peninsula.

2. Teachers in the TEA program travel to Antarctica either by ship, or by military aircraft. Here, I am standing in front of a Starlifter (C-141) jet and am just about to board the airplane for the 5-6 hour flight to the frozen continent. Other planes, such as the giant C-5 Galaxy or ski-equipped C-130 Hercules are used as well. The Hercules is a prop plane that takes longer to reach Antarctica...between 7-8 hours on the average.

©2000 - Photo by Betty Trummel

3. Inside the plane it is very crowded with people, gear, and pallets of cargo. You will notice that everyone is sitting knee to knee, shoulder to shoulder. The man with the tan baseball cap on backward (right side of picture) is 6' 8" tall...can you imagine how crowded he must feel? We are sitting on bench seats with plastic webbing as a back rest. On board we were given a sack lunch and ear plugs (for the noise of the plane), and people read or slept most of the time.

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