Take your own Antarctic cruise to 'Shackleton's South'

Discovery Channel set to show documentary about explorer's odyssey

Travellers considering Antarctic cruises should tune in to the Discovery Channel this evening, as the television station is showing the latest instalment of an adventure programme.

Shackleton's South with James Cracknell is a documentary, on at 9pm, about the explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton's attempt to be the first man to cross the Antarctic continent, in 1914.

The explorer's ship - the Endurance - got stuck in deep ice and his crew had to abandon it after fighting for nine months to dig it out. They rowed to a nearby island from where they began an 800-mile journey to the nearest inhabited land mass: South Georgia Island.

Shackleton was a trail-blazing explorer but thankfully the regions which were treacherous in his time are manageable in ours. Explore offers Antarctic cruises travelling from the Argentine coast.

James Cracknell won two Olympic gold medals for coxless four-person rowing - in 2000 and 2004 - alongside Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Matthew Pinsent.

The Discovery Channel - a television station dedicated to science, exploration and history - is available on channel 520 for people using Sky set-top boxes and number 212 for people watching with Virgin contracts.