devised"
This is the very memorable opening line to "The Worst Journey in the
World", a book by Apsley Cheery Garrard about Captain Scott's fateful
South Pole expedition(and the winter journey that the title talks about)
Today, the 17th of January, marks the 100th anniversary of when Captain
Robert Falcon Scott and his team reached the South Pole - only to find
that he'd been beaten to it by the Norweigan Roald Amundsen and his dog
team. It is still difficult to imagine how he must have felt. He never
made it back, dying from starvation in a storm only 11 miles from their
last depot of food.
We sit here at 82 degrees South (about 500 miles from the Pole) in a
heated hut, enjoying freshly baked bread and a cold beer imported from
Scott's English homeland. How things change.
The magnificent feat of reaching the South Pole is something that still
only a few explorers have accomplished, but we feel too feel like
pioneers. We believe that we, at 82 degrees south, have eaten more
cheese per day per person than any previous expedition on the continent.
Even the French. And that is something of which to be proud.
Oh, and we had a little bit of OK weather today and sneaked in a quick
flight to one location to geologise! YAY! Good to get out and get
somewhere... hopefully more on the way.
No comments:
Post a Comment