FROM one extreme to the other, that's the holiday adventure plan of a Masham woman.

Prue Keigwin, 58, has this year opted for the freezing temperatures of the Antarctic instead of her usual holidays in Africa.

Mrs Keigwin, D&S Times correspondent for the Masham area, planned the three-week visit to the Antarctic later this month as her first holiday alone since the death of her husband Robin, who was chief executive of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society until his death from cancer in February, 2002.

In the event, she will not be travelling alone as her sister and husband Patricia and Teddy Fellowes decided they would like to go too.

Brought up in Africa, Mrs Keigwin has spent many holidays there, some with her son Michael, who has been working with elephants in Uganda.

"I wanted a new experience while I was still young enough to enjoy it, and this trip seemed a good way for a single person to travel safely. I also wanted to do it while I was still fit enough to hop on and off boats," she said.

"Originally I wanted to go on an ice-breaking expedition, but when Patricia and Teddy decided to travel with me, I was persuaded to opt for something a little more comfortable."

Their trip will take them from Madrid to the Falklands and South Georgia, following in the footsteps of Shackleton, to Buenos Aires and Ushuaia, the most southerly township in the world on the tip of the Tierra Del Fuego.

"We don't quite cruise around the Horn, although I have been told to expect 60ft waves," she said.

Among the special travel equipment she needs for such an adventure, Mrs Keigwin will take something a little more mundane, but highly-prized - a jar of her home-made marmalade.

This she will deliver to friends in the Falklands. "I'm told we are to meet at the local watering hole," she said.

Mrs Keigwin, who works part-time for Crimestoppers, will be back home in time to be re-united with her family for Christmas.

Michael will be home for a few days before going to Texas in a continuation of his conservation work. Richard, her other son, is a lawyer in London.