CHARLIE CHOWDER'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE Charlie's travels started most unexpectedly for him.  He was just a humble clam, living in Ipswich, Massachusetts.  Doing all the things your average clam does, you know like filter feeding and slaming shut every now and again just for fun.  There was one special thing about Charlie, he went to school.  This made him stand out in the clam world, as he was the first of his kind to make it in the cut throat world of academia.  Anyway, he was very contented at Winthrop School.  The only thing he had trouble with was playing ball games.  Having no limbs made them very difficult, but he tried anyway.  One day Ms Kelly announced that there was to be an expedition to the Antarctic and that Winthrop School would be able to send someone along!  There was a very tense vote, but in the end Charlie was elected to go.  He was very excited and also very scared.  He had never been outside Ipswich before.  He had a good flight down to Australia to meet his new friend, Tim.  As we now all know, as soon as Charlie reached the frozen south, he became a most excellent explorer.  This is a pictorial history of an intrepid bivalve's explorations of the icy wastes of Antarctica.    

Our hero, Charlie, is supported by his manservant, Tim, on his way to the deep south.
Charlie socialises with Pengy the Adelie Penguin & Polly the Polar Bear, ably held by Vibeke and Sarah.
Polly & Pengy introduce Charlie to the icy environment that they both call home, though Polly lives on the other side of the world in the Arctic.
Tim again proves that sherpa is really the only use for a human.
Charlie bravely struggles across the inhospitable fast ice towards his ultimate goal, to place his feet (well, shell) on land in the Antarctic.  Charlie and Nick here had to be tied together with climbing rope so if either one of them fell through the ice or was caught by a vicious katabatic wind, the other could help.
At last, LAND!!  Charlie poses on volcanic rock near Davis Station, with his ship, the Aurora Australis in the background.
Charlie had the singular honour to meet Pengy's older brother, who's also called Pengy.  Penguins are sadly uncreative when it comes to names.  Oh yes, Mark was there too.
Charlie led an expedition far inland from Davis to the hypersaline lake, Lake Dingle.  He brought along Tim and Clair to carry his supplies.  While there, he made the great discovery of millions of ancient shell fragments from his ancestors, thus proving this land was once underwater, which is, of course, where Charlie feels all land should be anyway!
Charlie also turned his hand (well, not hand exactly) to zoology.  He carried out an intensive study of Weddell seals and brought Mike along as a field assistant.  Mike was a bit slow to learn, but Charlie is a patient clam.
Charlie then decided that we should study seals from the air, so we went up in this Sikorsky S76 to test his theories on Antarctic ecology.
Charlie, the true brains behind the survey, loved his chopper flights.  He even convinced the pilot to let him fly, that was until they both remembered that he has no hands!
Charlie Chowder, Polly Polar, Pengy Penguin and an unidentified "I" raise a glass to their dear departed friend, Bill the Krill.  They reminiced about Charlie and Bill's attempt to foment revolution on the ship with their war cry "Invertebrates of the World, unite!".
The Three Musketeers relax in the sun under the ozone hole, secure in the knowledge that polar bears, penguins and clams don't get skin cancer!
On the way home,  Charlie ponders his role in the pantheon of great Antarctic explorers from all over the world: the British James Cook, the Estonian German Thaddeus Bellinghausen, the American Charles Wilkes, the Japanese Nobu Shirase, the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, the British Robert Scott & Ernest Shackleton, the Australian Douglas Mawson, the Feline Mrs Chippy, the Euphausian Bill the Krill and now Charles T. Chowder from Winthrop School, Ipswich, Massachusetts, USA!
Charlie takes a well deserved rest on the golden beaches of Western Australia.  As he settles back he realises that although he loved the ice and snow of Antarctica, he is only ever as truly happy as the proverbial clam when he returns to the beach and water that are his natural home.

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