An aerial tour of Antarctica is a great way of beating the heat in sunny Adelaide

sittin g by the windows. The pilot chooses the best possib le route from among the 19 flight pad1s prepared by Qantas, depending on the day's wea th e r conclitions.

Three wee ks into the New Year and Adelaide suffered a scorcher wi th the mercury tipp ing to ove r 40' ' every day. \i1hile most pre ferred to cocoon them selves in air- conditioned comfort or clash out the beach to cool the ir heels, one Adelaid e woman d ecided to beat the heat by flying over Antarctica.

"l am not a thrill seeker, far from it! 1 ext to my profession, my love includes animal welfare, the environment and travel", revealed J ayalaksbmi, a GP of 42 years standing, Aying o n her own during most of those years. "My nr fare is limited to suc h progranunes and Artenborougb is a permanent guest in our liv ing room. After seeing his Frozen Planet I dreamed of the day when I would see the Antarctic. Knowing my passion, my children gave me a surprise birthday g i ft whe n the once -a-year summer flight was advertised"

Chartering Qantas planes, Antarctic Flights organises only one or two flights from all capital cities to tbe polar reg ion during the summer. These flights are u nique: no checking in, no bag!,,>age to b oard, and the destination i s marked as a 'Mystery Flight'. Two boarding passes are issued, each with a different seat number since passengers are aske d to swap seats while the aircraft is flying midway 'over the i ce', to allow most, if not all, of them a window -seat v iew of t he wonderland below.

This year's smnmer flight commemorated the cencenary of Dr Douglas Mawson's renun to A d e laide in I 914, after bis threeyear exp loration of Antarctica, Australia's first. The 747 flight o n January 19 w ith 320 sears was fully booked.

A Business class seat burns a $7,000 hole in one's pocket, while the Economy ranges from $1 ,200 to $2,800 for the 12- hour nonstop flight from A dela ide. Those who h ave booked win dow seats and the ad joi n ing thr ee seats can swap seats, but those in the middle seats don't swap and ate free to roam around and peer ove r those

After flying at armmd 30,000 feet for some three hours, the aircta fc d escend s and flies some 2,000ft above the highest point o n the ice cap at a slower speed, to provide maximum viewing oppormnities of the snowcapped co n tine nt. Two experts w h o know the polar region like d1e back of their hands due to years of research or work there, provide a 'flying' commenta ry on all aspects of the region a nd the sights be low visi b le from both sides of the plane.

Antarc tica with its 13.5 million sq kms is nearly twice the size of Australia, with 99.5% of its area covered in ice ranging in thickness from one to four miles. Tc contains nea1:ly 70%of the wodd's fresh water The lowest tem perature r ecorded is 90", making me wi sh some of dmt coolness b lows our way in d1is scorching sunimer. Antarctica was o nce part of the s uper-continent called Gondwana, from which South America, South Africa, India and Australia split and moved northwards some SO- plus million yea r s ago So India can be justified to have some c laim to chis 'motherland.'

There are 40 resea rch stations manned by various countries wid1 some 4,000 personnel during summer, reducing to l,500 in winter.

India's Anta rc tic p rogramme , promoted by Indira Gandhi, began in 1981.Jts research station D akshin Gangothri was replaced in 1990 by Maithri and now wid1 Bharathi ad ded, i r h;is joined nine od1er coun tries co have multisca ti ons. So far, over 30 Indian expeditions have visited Antartica. By the way, t here are two ATMs down there, 1 am told. To d ispense 'cold cash'?

The rest of th e story is best