Logging six continents in his travels, Bo Clampitt jumped at a chance to explore the seventh.
The Benzie County retiree enjoyed a three-week exploration of Antarctica 15 years ago. The retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel and veteran world traveler will share his experiences during a talk Thursday evening at the Betsie Valley District Library.
From penguins, seals and whale skeletons to glaciers, icebergs and a volcano, he will delve into the continent's history and exploration as well as the animal life and his varied experiences there.
Clampitt sifted through 500-600 photos for the program. He will offer a drawing that will send one attendee home with an original photographic print of an Antarctica landscape.
"There is nothing you can compare to it; it's as stark and bleak as you could ever dream of," said Clampitt, who retired from the Santa Monica, Calif., police department. "No trees grow there, and about the only thing on the beach are rocks and skeletons of penguins and whales."
Clampitt, a Texas native, had been planning a second trip to Africa when the opportunity arose to visit the remote continent. One of a handful of people joining a large tour group from a Denver museum, Clampitt's odyssey stretched from Los Angeles to Bogotá, Colombia, and Buenos Aires, Argentina -- with an unplanned sidetrack to Lima, Peru.
After a few days in Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost city in the world, the group headed for Antarctica. Ushuaia had its own attractions, including the terminus of the Pan-American Highway (which begins in Alaska), a national park featuring gorgeous orchids, an old whaling camp and buildings on sleds.
"All buildings up to three stories high are built on sled runners," Clampitt said of Ushuaia. "They had to be built on sled runners so if they were abandoned, they could be moved somewhere else."
Ironically the former intelligence officer from the Cold War era found himself on a Russian research boat, the Akademik Ioffe, when the three-day sea journey to the Antarctica peninsula began. The ship's retrofitting as a research cum cruise ship was a work in progress. Still onboard were equipment and features that twigged Clampitt's senses honed during the Cold War.
"The country was very short on funds, so they decided they would use the ship as a cruise ship," he said.
The ship stirred up krill during the journey, which is food for numerous bird species, including three or four different types of albatross. Clampitt tried to capture the majestic size of one species of albatross, which had a 10-foot wingspan. However, with only ocean as a background for photos, they look just like seagulls.
"It was cold, we'd try to go out and watch the birds for a while on deck, and then you had to come in," he said of the boat trip, which featured afternoon lectures en route.
Clampitt's first landfall was at the Polish Research Station, and he and his tour mates celebrated Christmas at the Argentinean Research Station.
On the way back to the South American continent, the ship sailed into an active volcano's breach. Near an old whaling station there, passengers were hoping to swim in the warmed waters, but it was too wavy that day.
"It would have been fun to go swimming in Antarctica," he said.
Clampitt's talk is one of a series that the Betsie Valley District Library offers monthly over eight or nine months of the year, featuring an array of speakers and topics. Diane Wilbur of Grow Benzie will give the next presentation, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 15.
The idea for ongoing adult lectures sprang from the library's successful youth summer reading program.
"It's an enrichment program for adults as well as entertaining, educational and cultural," said Michelle Guerra, librarian at the Betsie Valley District Library in Thompsonville.
Tapping Clampitt, an engaging storyteller, was an easy choice.
"He also did a wonderful program for us before on a climb to Mount Kilimanjaro," Guerra said. "He's such a gentleman and has had such a fascinating life."
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