The author, Tishani Doshi, reached Antarctica by first starting her journey in Madras, 13.09 degrees north of the Equator. She had to cross nine time zones and six checkpoints and had to traverse three bodies of water. Her journey involved multiple modes of transportation, including a car, an aeroplane, and finally, a Russian research vessel named the Akademik Shokalskiy. By the time she set foot on the Antarctic continent, she had been travelling for over 100 hours.