Virtual to the Bottom of the Earth

When the expedition ship Livonia casts off Wednesday from Ushuaia, Argentina, to the Antarctic Peninsula, it’ll be transporting thousands of wide-eyed travelers to the least visited continent. They’ll hear glaciers groan, watch penguins cavort and hold discussions with one of the region’s top experts. But only 38 of the passengers will be on board ship. The rest will tag along via Virtual Antarctica, a new World Wide Web site (https://www.terraquest.com) created by travel companies Mountain Travel Sobek and WorldTravel Partners.

The Livonia’s Dec. 13-25 journey to the bottom of the world will be the first expedition to employ such leading-edge technology as live audio chats and Apple’s QuickTime VR--software that allows photographs with 360-degree panoramic views to be posted on the Internet. The images will be uploaded via satellite transmissions several times a day. Cybertravelers can download video footage of the trip and check the vessel’s progress via a simulated view from the bridge, complete with gauges (updated hourly) that display actual temperatures, wind speeds and other atmospheric conditions.

The exotic nature of online expeditions such as Virtual Antarctica (future journeys are planned to Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands, Kenya’s Mt. Kilimanjaro and Chile’s Bio-Bio River, among other places) can be compared to adventure travel in the 1960s, Richard Bangs says. He ought to know: A founding partner of Mountain Travel Sobek, Bangs pioneered river rafting on more than 35 remote waterways around the globe.

While the Virtual Antarctica team tried to build in as much redundancy as possible, “We’re really on the outer edge of what technology can do,� including reliance on the world’s southernmost satellite to relay signals from the ship to the Internet.

Bad weather or other snafus may delay or cancel the live chats and picture transmissions, he says. Indeed, no more than 10% of the Web site’s visitors will be able to take advantage of such high-tech features, Bangs estimates. But even virtual travelers whose Web access is limited to text rather than graphics can still access the site’s extensive historical and environmental information and follow the journey by perusing passenger logbooks, he says.

By participating in an expedition, albeit vicariously, travelers can “bring down the filters� that have shrouded the White Continent in mystery since its discovery.

Small bytes: Just in time for the peak visitor season, there’s a new Usenet newsgroup for travelers interested in exchanging news and advice about the Caribbean: rec.travel.caribbean. . . .

Visitors to the Japan National Tourist Office’s Web site (https://www.jnto.go.jp.) can now make online reservations for more than 500 budget-priced Welcome Inns across the country. Rooms average about $50 per night. . . .

The new Austrian National Tourist Office’s Web site (https://www.anto.com) features Austria’s Imperial Cities (Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Graz, Linz and Klagenfurt) as well as money-saving hints, answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) and links to other Austrian-related sites. Cybertravelers can win a one-week Austria trip for two in a contest that runs through Dec. 31.

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Bly welcomes reader comments; her e-mail address is Laura.B[email protected]. Electronic Explorer appears monthly.