TASMANIA

crisscrossed in early 1774, before Cook ok inched east st to Cape Horn (see above) and another relatively blank page – the South Atlantic. Here, the Resolution became the first ship to make a recorded docking at South Georgia – in Possession Bay, on the north coast – before the “adjacent” South Sandwich Islands came into view on Jan 31. “I was now tired of these southern latitudes, where nothing was to be found but ice and thick fogs,” Cook would muse wearily in his journal. Modern echo: One

Ocean Expeditions

(0035 1 962 721 836; oneoceanexpeditions. com) has a 14-night “South Georgia in Depth” cruise – with a photographic The aim of the explorer’s last hurrah was to locate the Northwest Passage between Asia and North America. But first, the Resolution went south-east from Plymouth to familiar waters. The second voyage had flirted with Tasmania. Tobias Furneaux, Cook’s assistant, piloting HMS A Adventure, had charted the south and east coasts of “Van Diemen’s Land” in 1773 – during three months when the ships had been separated by fog. Cook landed on the south shore on Jan 26 1777, but, like Tasman and Furneaux before him, missed the Bass Strait – and the fact Tasmania was not part of the main Australian land mass.

Modern echo: Steppes Travel (01285 601 759; steppes travel.com) has a 12-day group tour of Tasmania – focusing on its wildlife, with photographer Sue Flood – scheduled to commence