Tracking
the Journey
-
Distance to go:
0 Mi
Distance
Ben and Tarka will cover 1800 miles starting from Scott's Terra Nova Hut at the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole and back to the coast again. That's equivalent to 69 back-to-back marathons hauling up to 200kg each (the weight of roughly two adult men) of kit and supplies necessary to survive.
Distances here are shown in statute miles.
A Very Long Walk (Day 97)
Day 97: S80° 12' 34.67", E168° 34' 30.36"
Duration: 9 Hr 30 Min
Daily distance: 24.2 Mi
Distance to go: 198.5 Mi
Temperature: -12 °C
Wind chill: -17 °C
Altitude: 197 Ft
I don't have an awful lot to tell you today, as we spent all of it battling into a full-blown, emulsion-thick whiteout, so we didn't see a single thing. We lost our old tracks within the first half hour, we both have splitting headaches from peering into the gloom as we navigated, unable to focus on anything, and shoulders and necks knotted into spasm from hunching over our compass bracket (that straps around our chests to leave our hands free for ski poles). We managed to clock 39km, which we're pleased with, and which means we're still on track to hit our depots and make it back to Ross Island on schedule.
One thing we are excited about is that Andy informed us on our evening check-in satellite phone call that we appear to have become the longest man-hauling (i.e. human-powered, sledge-dragging) polar expedition in history, by more than 335km.
Lastly, in today's gloomy weather there was nothing that inspired me to take a photograph. "Take one in the tent," said Andy, "People love that. Even a food bag or something." So that's what you've got: a still-life taken from the position of my head. As you can see, it's Thai chicken curry tonight (we peeled off the food bag labels in Chile to save weight) and as I'm not cooking, I'm in charge of overseeing battery charging from the solar panels.
Comments
# Rosie Vidovix Unsworth, January 30th 2014
Hey Ben and Tarka
Thank you for the trouble of taking pictures, writing your blogs and ensuring you entertain us even when you are so tired.
Got the champagne on the ice waiting for you to reach the finishing line. Don’t worry too much about getting here before champagne goes flat, I will do that for you. After all is the least I could do after all the adventure I had via you!
Take care and keep going!
# Austin Duryea, January 31st 2014
Thank you so much for being able to take pictures a write back to us. It is just amazing that y’all are only about a week away from completing your journey. I wish that there was some way that I could meet you in person. Also great job on the sketch that you did Gav. It was Amazing.
# Sounds like a plan Dave , January 30th 2014
I’m very impressed that you find the energy to keep up with you blog. That’s nothing short of super human. Keep it up guys! Looking foreword to your next post.
# CaninesCashews, January 30th 2014
Hi guys,
Well then, under 200 to go – what amazing milestone.
It really doesn’t seem that long ago that we were celebrating you reaching 200 miles down on your outward journey (although I’m sure it does to you!). It was way back around day 26 – I remember because I celebrated with an Etch–a-Sketch!!
Unbelievable when you consider you’re probably going to knock these last 200 off in around a third of that time.
I hope that you have the chance of some better visibility on these last few days – just to give you a few more memories of this epic adventure to take home.
What great news from Andy, and you didn’t just break it – you’ve smashed it!!
I can see you might need to update those business cards of yours now.
Hope you enjoyed your umpteenth Thai Chicken curry, I’m sure it tastes a little better with a polar record under your belts!
For those who are interested my original Etch from back then is here: pic.twitter.com/x2Q1jpAjC2
Onwards.
Stay safe.
Gav
# Richard Pierce, January 30th 2014
You should go on Britain’s Got Talent with those Etch-a-Sketch skills, Gav. Absolutely brfilliant. R
# CaninesCashews, January 30th 2014
Thanks Richard - kind of you to say so, but pretty sure they won’t allow me the hour and a half it took to do that one!!
G.
# Mal Owen , January 30th 2014
Seconded…they are super :-)
# Richard Pierce, January 30th 2014
Only 90 mins? That’d be riveting telly. Get yourself a show!!! BTW, I’m not taking the mick.
R
# CaninesCashews, January 30th 2014
Thanks guys - seriously. Its nice to be able to use one of the more unusual elements of my ‘arty’ skillset for this extarordinary adventure.
It usually only gets rolled out when I need complete switch off time . I like the fact that it is one continuous line - constantly moving forward - lots of concentration needed and completely unforgiving of mistakes. Remind you of anything? Apt I think.
G.
# Tara Carlisle, January 30th 2014
Gav
I’m a big fan of your work; both your literary and artistic talent.
Tara
# Intrepid, January 30th 2014
That’s what makes it one of the most marvelous inventive toys of all time (and what I personally love about Etch-A-Sketch, which I haven’t played with in eons) - the seemingly simplicity of how one continuous line can create the most amazingly complex pictures. And your drawing .... WOW! Have you ever made a movie of you working the nobs and creating a picture? It would be captivating as well as really cool to listen to a story being spoken while watching you work, bit by turning the knob bit, as the image appears in greater and greater detail. OOoohhh….. :)
# CaninesCashews, January 30th 2014
Thanks Tara/Intrepid – I seem to have dissipated into a crimson blush here :-
Interesting idea about the video Intrepid, but I’m afraid the EaS is my switch off time – no gadgets, no power. Just a photo on my phone at the end… and then a shake and its gone. Maybe one day.
A bit off topic but I love the Etch-a-Sketch – a quintessential toy that can entertain two year olds and adults alike. A quick staircase, a stickman doodle or a work of art – take your pick.
I spend most of my day working with Photoshop etc. I love that EaS doesn’t have any wires – it is exactly the same as it was 50 years ago – no upgrades, just a brilliant design right from the off.
A toy that has become an icon powered only by imagination, how wonderful is that.
When I have done the ones (three I think) about this crazy adventure, it gives me time to ponder the absolute madness of it all. Trying my best to imagine those guys at the time of the drawing, what are they doing, why are they there, what are they thinking about, what is driving them on, how will they feel when all the doing is done?
I’m not sure I’ve found the answers to those questions, but I hope with all my heart they will have.
G.
# Richard Pierce, January 30th 2014
Gav,
That’s such a profound post that I am almost fearful of adding to this particular thread. Truly amazing. I remember EaS from when I was about 12, and that’s 40-odd years ago. Always loved them, and the mystery of them. Where does that line come from, when you’re a child, who is really drawing, you or the machine, or some soul inside the red box?
Your switch-off time really interests me. I always count mine as that time over Chroistmas and New Year when none of my computers are on, but everything is still connected. Yours sounds like it’s an absolute, with nothing except the electricity of your body. I should try that. Maybe that’s why I miss the Antarctic so much (and the life I had in Norway for 4 brief years), because in those places I could be entirely away from everything, because being outdoors was to be free, and even indoors, in Norway, firing with wood and nothing else felt primeval and real and tangible.
Man, you’ve got me going now. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
R
# Intrepid, January 30th 2014
Wondering about Ben and Tarka while feeling deeply from your heart as you create a masterpiece of them, what an incredible contribution Gav. I also really like the impermanence of the original art; how simple it is to wipe the slate clean after all the effort. I still think a video production would be cool. You could just draw, somebody else would video. It’d have an animated quality mixed with docudrama. All in b&w… with flashbacks to the real thing.
# Lydia, January 30th 2014
Whoop Whoop!!! Well done guys amazing - I think you will need a whole chapter in the Guiness Book of Records for what you will have achieved by the time you get back - from the magnificant super human achievement to the slightly more bizarre that I am sure your family of bloggers will be able to contribute to.
Keep going brave men and see you on the other side very soon!
YeeeeeHaaaaa
Lydia x
# Intrepid, January 30th 2014
@ Lydia,
I second the part about this expedition being able to fill up a whole chapter of new types of records as well as blasting through prior records, in the Guiness Book of Records.
# Heidi, January 31st 2014
My son only recently discovered the book, Guinness Book of World Records. Today he asked me if Ben and Tarka are in it. Soon, son, very soon.
# Jörg, January 30th 2014
I just heard this - it may be of interest to you: There is fossil evidence that Antarctica may have been covered by forests ... http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-dead-forests-of-antarctica.
Almost home!!
# Intrepid, January 30th 2014
Thanks for the link Jörg. Quite interesting to see evidence that Antarctica was, once upon a time, a much more hospitable environment.
# Dave, January 30th 2014
Plate tectonics. I’m sure I’d move even slower than the continents if pulling a sledge on the Ross ice shelf, let alone the Beardmore.
Great going, guys!
Continued safety and progress.
# Mal Owen, January 30th 2014
Congratulations to the Record Breakers .... I suspect record breaking wind is on the cards. Snap… I had home made Thai Curry last night too!
You were right Tarka…interesting pic….hope the whiteout clears for you…I wrote fades but changed it as I realised you’d still see nothing!
Milestone Under 100 is on its way.
# Jarda, January 30th 2014
Hi Ben and Tarka,
great job! You have to pretty celebrate what you have achieved (longest man-hauling polar expedition in history).
Your endurance is a great inspiration for everybody and at the same time through your journey you appreciate all the people who in “heroic” age of polar exploration risked their lives (under very inadequate conditions) due to desire for uncovering of unknown.
Now it´s time to honour the memory of Cpt. Scott, Dr. Wilson, Lt. Bowers, Cpt. Oates, P.O. Evans (and not to forget the members of last supporting team who survived but also struggled very hard - Lt. “Teddy” Evans, P.O. Crean, Lashly).
However for me the highlight of heroism was the journey of Sir Shackleton, who had the courage to return before reaching the Pole and who rescued his team (Wild, Adams, Marshall).
# Rosie Vidovix Unsworth, January 30th 2014
Jarda
Your comment is very interesting and I completely agree.
I imagine, Captain Scott and his men must have felt a terrible sense of failure for reaching the Pole after Amundsen and later when they knew they would die without reaching home. And although they failed on their objectives they lived on to inspire people like Ben and Tarka and many others to go on and do greater things.
# Phil Satoor, January 30th 2014
I’m glad that Lashley and Crean have been mentioned here (and also yesterday by Torsten Richter) as their return journey as the “Last Supporting Party”, the last people to see Scott alive, is a great story of triumph over adversity.
For most of the time, Lt Evans was suffering from scurvy and had great difficulty coming along. Near the end he couldn’t walk at all and had to be dragged on the sledge by Lashly and Crean, although he wanted them to leave him behind. About 30 miles from Hut Point, they couldn’t pull Evans any further so with only some biscuit and a little chocolate Crean walked the to Hut Point, without ski or crampons, and with the risk of crevasses, to get help. Fortunately the weather held and the party was saved.
Lashly and Crean, two heros in my book, and also in Lt Evan’s, who dedicated his book “South with Scott” to his two loyal companions who had saved his life.
# Jarda, January 30th 2014
Tom Crean was a quite unbelievable polar hero - not only because of his merit in saving Lt. Evans but also due to his role during the Shackleton´s Transantarctic Expedition in another part of Antarctic…
# Richard Pierce, January 30th 2014
Dear, dear boys,
These last miles will be the most difficult. They may not be as physically dangerous as old Beardmore, but the dangers of the mind can be greater than those outside. I wish for you, today, clear skies and a sun of hope.
The still life is superb. Maybe someone on here will paint it (or Gav Etch-A-Sketch it).
AT the risk of repeating myself, I wrote a poem about whiteouts straight into the blog late last night, so I’ll post it again here (inspired by Ben’s monochrome rainbow). And when I see you pass 79.51S, I’ll post a poem about Scott’s last camp.
Go well, you teo.
MODERN ANTARCTICA
monochrome
colours gone
dimensions dissipated
no up no down no forwards no backwards
no black no white no shades no shadows no reference
no horizon
this is not a veil
it’s a wall
this is not beauty
it’s cruelty
this is no adventure
it’s more than that
we learned to walk as children
with our eyes open
there were cushions for every fall
parents friends grass rocks
we learned to talk and listen
in this cage of no dimensions
we are alone
no cushions
no grass
nothing
the horizon shrinks and disappears
we cannot measure distance
the fog freezes to us
the snow turns to sand
we are beached
two hundred miles up
a satellite watches us
blog watchers watch us
they cannot touch us
the desert is transparent
we are transparent
we are ghosts in the ether
R
# Richard Pierce, January 30th 2014
Thanks for compliment. And like the titles. It will be interesting to see what the boys do come up with. R
# Mal Owen, January 30th 2014
left me speechless ...I hope that is what was intended :-)
# Richard Pierce, January 30th 2014
Mal,
If your speechlessness was as a result of liking the poem and its imagery, yes, that was the intent. If your speechlessness is due to your astonishment that anyone could write such rubbish, then, no, that was not the intent. I am hoping it was the former.
R
# Intrepid, January 30th 2014
Can really feel the inside of experience, Richard .... knowing that in the distance is everything, reachable but untouchable, and all alone but seen. Really captures well what has to be shaken off.
# Richard Pierce, January 30th 2014
Thanks, Intrepid. :-) R
# Richard Pierce, January 30th 2014
PS - The title of today’s blog should also be the title of your book about the expedition.
R
# Lydia, January 30th 2014
Richard
What about ‘A Very Long Drag’ for the title of the book?
Loving the poetry!
Lydia x
# Lydia, January 30th 2014
Or even ‘What a Drag…..’
Lydia x
# Richard Pierce, January 30th 2014
Lydia,
Of course, I left my thanks, and appreciation of your titles, as a reply to the wrong post. I am an idiotic Luddite.
R
# Intrepid, January 30th 2014
Title Take Off’s—- What a Long Hard Drag It’s Been, 100 Days of Dragging
# Rich/Ione, January 30th 2014
The next message we send will be a blank screen representing a white font on a white background in sympathy with your whiteout walking . If you can read it we are sure it will be the most enlightening and interesting comment so far. Will leave it to you to imagine.
# Rich/Ione, January 30th 2014
white on white (blank comments not permitted by the look of it)
# Intrepid, January 30th 2014
.
# Intrepid, January 30th 2014
@ Rich/Ione
See the above comment
:)
# Rosie Vidovix Unsworth, January 30th 2014
Intrepid
I can only see one of the boys on the horizon (sorry, cant really recognize which one). Where is the other one? lol
# Intrepid, January 30th 2014
@ Rosie
Hahahahaha! The whiteout is so thick you can’t even see right in front of him. Oh wait, maybe he’s behind that dot. So difficult to see much of anything ....
# Uncle Pete, January 30th 2014
Good haulage record. Below 200 to go is fantastic. My thoughts will be with you all the way though I am not sure if I will be able to follow the final steps from the depths of Malawi! Wishing you fair weather and a safe return, well done chaps.
ps another time perhaps Google Glasses for heads-up navigation would be the next adventurer hi-tech kit? Maybe it could even paint some colour to your whiteouts though I am not sure ‘street view’ would have much coverage out there.