It took him 58 days to get from the icy Hercules Inlet Bay to the South Pole. Waligóra skied alone and pulled everything he needed on a sled. The finish - on Friday the 13th - will be remembered for the rest of his life.

On May 26th Mateusz Wrazidlo (FI'22) embarked on an expedition to La Gran Sabana and Mount Roraima in Venezuela.

The expedition, focused primarily on botanical exploration and photography, marked a restart of Mateusz activity in the Guiana Highlands and was his first visit to the tepuis since the COVID-19 lockdown.

It was also his second project focused on documenting the biodiversity of Mount Roraima, complementing the observations made during a visit to the northern slopes of this massif i in 2019.

The team (including Julia Wisniowska, Michal Wisniowski, Calio Elliman, Juan Mora, Yonatan Pozas, Jose Tovar Hurtado and local assistants) managed to make some puzzling observations, including possible new findings concerning certain endemic plant species (in review).

Explorers witnessed the occurrence of a wildfire on the summit of Roraima - possibly the first time they recorded such phenomenon, which raises questions over the influence of climate change and human activity on the environment of the tepui summits.

Mateusz Wrazidło investigating an unknown endemic plant

In August 2023, the Santi Odnaleźć Orła (to Locate “the Eagle”) team, including four TEC members - Tomasz Stachura FI’13, Benedykt Hac FI’15, Piotr Michalik FI’22 and Karol Jacob FI’23, organized the search expedition for the ORP Orzeł wreck for the tenth time. This is the flagship submarine of the Polish Navy, lost in action in the North Sea during World War II.

The section of the North Sea searched was the region of the placement, during WWII, of several extensive mine barrages in the area of the German Bay east of the last patrol of ORP Orzeł.

During the 9 days of the expedition (7 days at sea), an area of 20,000 square kilometers was searched and 165 positions of known wrecks were checked (only a small fraction of which was marked on nautical charts).

In these positions 130 wrecks were found, of which as many as 6 were submarine remnants. 4 of them were previously unrecognized as wrecks of this type of naval craft. The positions on the maps rarely contain information about the nature of the wreck.
Based on the images taken by MBES (Multibeam Echosounder), our divers made only one dive to a depth of 45 meters on a probable next submarine wreck. The wreck was very badly damaged, but it had the shape, size and features typical of the unit they were looking for, so they had to check it visually. However, it turned out to be the wreck of a submarine chaser from WW I.

The expedition was very fruitful. Based on the collected materials, an international team of experts recognized, identified and described all 6 submarine wrecks, and the SANTI search expedition significantly contributed to updating the international wreck database. Next year, the searchers announce their return to the North Sea with another 11th expedition.

Expedition Santi Poster.

On June 24, 2023, at 4:00 pm, the 9th edition of the Benedict Pole Awards took place at the Kazimierzowski Palace in Warsaw, in the Senate Room of the University of Warsaw.

The symposium "Laureates of the Benedict Pole Award 2023" was aimed at popularizing Polish exploration achievements and recalling, through the person of the Patron, Franciscan Benedict Pole, the historical significance that our country has played in the field of intercultural contacts. The event was scientific in nature, a celebration of the achievements of Polish scientists and scientists from abroad who collaborate with Polish researchers.

In this year's (2023) 9th edition of the Benedict Pole Award, the Grand Prize winners were:

Main Prize for a Pole by Marta Kolanowska, PhD, submitted by the Polish Embassy in Bogota, Colombia.

Main Prize for a Foreigner Prof. Rimvydas Petrauskas submitted by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Lithuania.

Special Mention Dr. Odpurev Gankhuyag submitted by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Mongolia.

As in previous editions, the ceremony received the Honorary Patronage of Mr. President of the Republic of Poland Dr. Andrzej Duda, the prize pool was funded by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, and the project was subsidized by the Ministry of Education and Science and the University of Warsaw. Radio patronage of the ceremony was provided by Polish Radio SA.

The ceremony at the Kazimierz Palace, was attended by representatives of state and local government authorities and the scientific and cultural world.

We are pleased to announce that the Polish Chapter of the Explorers Club has embarked on a project dedicated to Polish explorers of the New World and the Pacific Islands.

One of the patrons of 2023 is Pawel Edmund Strzelecki, a foremost Polish explorer, world-renowned geologist, and geographer, who was the first Pole to organize a solo scientific voyage around the world, lasting nine years. He set out on it from England in June 1834. He visited and conducted scientific research in Canada, the USA, Mexico, Cuba, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica, El Salvador, the Marquesas, Tahiti, Hawaii, and New Zealand, stopping for a longer time in Australia and Tasmania (1839-1843), the then British dominions, where he made his most important geological and geographical discoveries. On his way back to Europe, he stayed in Indonesia, the Philippines, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Egypt, and Algeria. Due to the territorial scope of his research explorations, it is impossible to classify him into one narrow area.

However, it also provides an opportunity to present those lesser-known Polish explorers and researchers who made significant contributions to the knowledge of the New World and especially Australia and the islands of the Pacific. The choice of this particular area is dictated by the fact that both Strzelecki and Bronislaw Malinowski or Jan Stanislaw Kubary were active there but also was his contemporaries or successors, such as Adam Joachim Kulczycki, Aleksander Zakrzewski, Jerzy Zubrzycki, Józef Zwierzycki and others. In some cases, such as A-J Kulczycki, are overlooked. These scholars will be commemorated so that their important achievements in world science are not forgotten.

The form of implementation of this project is a bilingual (English and French) poster exhibition (about 15 posters) with an accompanying 30-minute film.

The deadline for completion is December 15, 2023.

Grant amount: PLN 200,000

The project is financed from the state budget within the framework of the competition of the

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland, “Public Diplomacy 2023″.

Tomasz Grzywaczewski won this year's Kazimierz Dziewanowski Award, awarded by the Association of Polish Journalists (SDP) for his publications on global issues and world events. The journalist has been awarded for three reports broadcasted by Polish Television (TVP) on: "Lithuania. In the shadow of the tower', 'Ukraine. Report from the crime scene', 'Belarus. Awakening".

Tomasz Grzywaczewski, a member of the Polish Chapter of The Explorers Club, is in Ukraine, where he is a journalist, providing up-to-date information directly from the front line. You can follow his reports in English and Polish on www.tvpworld.com and www.tvp.info.pl