Hi all,

We left Antarctica couple of hours earlier than decided. This was due to a storm was coming on our way. It helped a lot. We are nearly close to crossing Drake Passage. It is feeling like we are traveling on Drake Lake, its sooo smooth till now. While going to Antarctic, it was worst.

Looks like we will be arriving at Ushuaia between 10p-12am. Way early. But we have to spend tonight on ship as we will have to do immigration in the morning. But hay, we will be sleeping on stable beds.

Will have a day in Ushuaia and then to BA and then home bound.

I will put all my photos on FB to see when I come on land or home.

Till then

Hi all,

We are now on ship and heading towards Ushuaia.  At present the Drake Passage is calm. Everyone has a sea-sickness patch and/or Dramamine tabs. I have never experienced such turbulent seas. Its horrible. Hats off to those who work on ships and still can smile. No idea how people travel months and months on Sea.

Jessica and Sam H - I read all ur emails, I will reply to you once I am on land.

Bored of listening penguin stories by staff.

Now, I am looking forward to put my foot on land.

What else, nothing more to write. Just passing every minute on sea. Tomorrow is going to be a relatively fun day as prize ceremony will be held and then banquet, party and all.

Will try my best to update you all.

Till then, chao, bye.

What a day…. I am India’s 1st Grand Slammer, 6th  American, 1st Indian American Grand Slammer.

Yesterday’s long stage had to cancel and ship captain had to take shelter back to Deception Island. We arrived early in the morning and were told to get ready w gears by 8am w breakfast at 7am.

I got up and to my surprise, a note was stuck on my room door saying, “Happy Bday, Mr. Patki”. Yes, its my bday and ship crew knew about it. My day started w all pleasant surprises.

Got everything packed and everyone wished well me in the lounge. Later, we left for the course in zodiac boat. It was windy and chilly weather. Got a little wet on the ride. I had nice beef w Chinese congy w spice. It kept me warm for hours.

We started our run at 9am to be finished by 2pm, so that we could go to the ship and the ship can leave to reach Ushuaia on time. We ran in chilly weather. But who cares? It was a last run. We could see seals on shore resting peacefully. What a beautiful mammal.

While running, everyone passing me wished me for my bday. I must have got 100s of wishes on the course, multiple times.

At 1:30pm, the race was done and I got my blue ribbon w The Last Desert Medal. How emotional it was… someone shouted… ‘hey King of Desert from India’. I felt so proud of self. Yes, I did it. I got Grand Slam of 4 Deserts.

Looking back, I say I could achieve what I achieved today is bc of full of support from my family, friends and well wishers. Thank you all.

We came back to the ship, had a nice shower and lunch.

Just now, I had dinner. At dinner, all of a sudden lights went off and the ship staff came up with chocolate cake and a candle lighted on it with all singing and wishing for me.

Yes, I am thankful to all those who wished me today directly, indirectly or thru their hearts.

Now, my return journey is started. In 2 days, we will be on Argentina soil and another 2 days, I will be back home.

Thank you all for keeping me motivated. Thank u, thank u , thank U.

Wish me that Drake Passage will be cool to cross.

Will try to update as we go.

Cheers

Hi friends,

It was the 4th day and it had to be cancelled because of harsh weather. We got up with wind speeds of 30 knotts. After an hour, it went up to 50 and waves were 30 m high. There was no way that we could have gone to shore w such weather. Captain tried to go nearby so that we can do our next stage but

Hello Friends,

3rd day is finished. All days were long, running more than 7 hours on Antarctic peninsula. What a beauty she is. Its heaven on Planet Earth.

We got up around 6am w some announcement and saw outside of window and could not believe the scenery. Any photo or photographer can not give justification to its beauty. We were dropped at shore of Danco island by zodiac rubber boats. After usual checks, we started running uphill in a winding route. It was a REAL hard course, 4.7 km of which more than 3.5km was uphill.

Why it was chosen like that when last time it was 90 percent flat? Its b/c of the hosts, the Penguins. They occupied all that flat area and left us no choice. What a beautiful birds are they

Hi friends,

Today was 2nd day, we went on a different location than decided. It was full of penguin colonies. You can say, cities of penguins. I could not count all. There were that many. The course was very hard but the whole scenery was outstanding. Snow was knee dip high. It sucked. My thighs were behaving a little funky, so decided to take it easy. Had only 5 laps of 2.2 km. I am happy that. I survived another day.

At 5pm, we returned back to the ship and had hot showers. Tonight was a dinner buffet. Wow, everyone behaved like they had not eaten for a week. J

Now, its times to go to bed.

Tomorrow is going to be a hard and big day.

Let's see.

Forgot to say but seen lots of seals too, playing and roaming around. More tomorrow

We arrived at Deception Island. It

Hi all,

I am writing this blog from the ship Plancius. We left yesterday around 6pm. The Beagle Channel was calm and we started our journey well. After sometime, we were given a safety briefing and had a safety drill. Later we had welcome drinks with the ship

The Last Desert: Most of us are looking forward to go and run on the coldest continent on planet earth. I have mixed emotions before going.

Its my The last desert run. I have completed all other 3, got 3 medals with 3 different ribbons (Green, Red, Yellow). The last blue ribbon is remaining. Its one of the toughest races. The temperatures can drop 30 below zero, wind, snow can disturb everything. 

Every participants have their own emotions. Some of us are Grand Slammers, some of us are joining Desert clubs, some of us are disappointed in Atacama but still running in the last desert on an invitation and then running back Atacama next year to fulfill dream to get into 4-desert club. Every participant has own story to tell.

What is mine ??

Few years back, I started running and got my first marathon medal, then another, then another but never been into Ultras. This 4-desert gave me a chance to become Ultra marathon runner. It gave me confidence that I can push my limits much higher than mere marathon runner. To get success, you need to have STRONG mind... many times, while running we all say... "Oh man.. what the hell I am doing here ?" But when we have strong mind, we say... "I'll crawn if I have to but will see finish line".

I am not a professional runner. I do not like running. Believe me, I DON'T like running but here I am going for my The last desert run.

My dear friends, with all your cheering up me thru my blogs, text messages, IMs, emails, I got lots of encouragements before, after and while on the course. I am very much thankful to you for that and in my success, you have the most important part to play alongwith blessings from my entire family.

Please keep writing on my blog for the last time. I need it the most.

Thank you from bottom of my heart friends

Dear Friends,

Thank you for all your help and wishes for my 3rd desert run. With all your wishes and blessings, I could run Atacama race successfully.

Now, taking it forward, I am running my last desert in Antarctica. This is going to be a different environment, like from 105 degrees to -10 to -25 degrees. I will be running with my other fellowmates who will be interested in bagging their first GS (Grand Slam). There are hardly few, like in 20s who have already got GS and we will be nearly equal numbers in the same year. 

Completing this race will take me into '4-Desert Club' which is itself is unique for people who have completed all 4 deserts including last desert. And after GS, it will put me to very select group of people who have achieved this in one calender year.

Stastically, if I complete this, I will be first and ONLY Geand Slammer from India, 5th or 6th from the USA, the 2nd in 4-desert club member from India and in less than 50 Grand slammer in the world and less than 200 th 4desert club member around the globe.

To achieve this, I need your best wishes and blessings.

Please do so by writing and reading on my blog.

My race is from November 4-8 and I will be posting all my blogs here for all of you to read and write. So, please keep on reading and writing from now on.

Thank you and Cheers