Antarctic Dream to Honor Heritage - Help my Dad realise a lifetime dream

My dad, Richard Ross has always dreamed of visiting the Antarctic to see the Ross Sea, the Ross Ice Shelf and Mount Erebus & Terror – places named after his Great Great Grandfather, the British Polar Explorer Sir James Clark Ross who discovered them in 1841.

As 2016 marks the 175th anniversary since James first unearthed what is now known as ‘The Last Ocean’ – the last intact pristine ecosystem left in the world – it seems apt and fitting that as the eldest living male descendant he should follow the trail of his ancestor for the first and probably last time.

Dad turns 80 on the 12 November this year – the very day that James left Hobart in 1840 on a quest to find the South Pole. It would mean the world to me if you could help me raise at least $30,000 so we can honor the amazing legacy James has left us all. The money would cover the cost of flying him from England so he could be among other Antarctic explorer ancestors on a 35 day cruise being operated by Heritage Expeditions called ‘In the Wake of Ross, Amunsden and Scott’ that leaves Invercargill in February 2016.

It gives me goose bumps to think of the smile and tears of joy he’d shed being given the chance to realise his lifelong dream.

James was a highly revered British Naval Officer who chartered the Arctic and Antarctic discovering the North Magnetic Pole on 1st June 1831 and venturing south in 1840 on a quest to discover the South Pole. He was knighted in 1844 for being the most successful votary of science; an enthusiasm that earned him accolades for being the first authority on all matters relating to Arctic navigation. His Arctic research was considered as the highest importance for knowledge of nature's laws. He was the first to establish that the Antarctic was a continent, not just a series of islands and the man to whom Antarctic scientific exploration owes so much.

Please be a treasure – like my Dad – and donate and help spread the word so we can give him the best 80th birthday present imaginable.

Eternal gratitude x