Antarctica by bus

If you’re not already doing so, it isn’t too late to follow the exploits of Andrew Evans, a writer for National Geographic, as he pursues his most recent travel goal: DC-Antarctica by bus. (Or mostly so. He’s taken short hops on planes where absolutely necessary, and is currently closing on his destination via a Lindblad Expeditions boat.) Evans is good company, exactly the kind of adventurous, curious, friendly sort you’d want to travel with, and the reason I know this is that he’s been liveblogging almost every mile of the trip via Twitter and National Geographic’s Intelligent Travel blog, complete with photos and updates from a shirtpocket video camera. It’s all very 21st century, but the trip has a slightly rumpled, improvisational air that brings to mind other great travelers from Phileas Fogg to Michael Palin. Reading Evans’ updates on the trip, you can’t help feeling you’re peering over his shoulder as he traverses miles and miles of new road. (And, not for nothing, peeking at his notes as he assiduously files them away for the article and book that seem sure to follow. From a journalistic point of view, this is the most fascinating thing about Evans’ Twittering — it’s a live raw feed straight from his notebook to his readers.) It all makes for great reading about a great adventure, and an immersive kind of travel journalism that would have been utterly impossible in an earlier era.