Greg Lemond, the first American Tour de France winner, once said of racing bicycles as a professional that (and I may be paraphrasing slightly here) "It never gets easier, you just go faster". And so it goes in the world of professional sled-draggers too.

I found today pretty tough and struggled against my harness like an aging donkey, cursing the headwind, and at times even my own stupidity for thinking this was a good idea. Tarka, as always, soldiers on like a cross between a bionic Birdie Bowers and Dolph Lundgren, which of course is why I asked him to be my team mate. The word indefatigable was invented for Tarka, he has the heart and lungs of a racehorse, each thigh is a tree trunk, and his brain is a computer that processes complex calculations involving latitude, longitude and average speeds with alarming accuracy.

Once again we've hit a record distance (more than 14 miles) and I'm hoping this streak will continue. The weather was very odd today, with sunshine almost all of the time but an astonishing range of temperatures and wind speed and direction that had us juggling layers of clothing and mittens, gloves, hats, masks and headbands. At some points I was wearing almost everything I had, yet for half an hour this afternoon I skied in still, sweltering sunshine in just my base layer.

We saw mountains a long way off to our right (pretty much due west) possibly the Churchill Mountains or the Britannia Range, blown out of proportion and distorted vertically by mirages. We should start seeing more land in the coming days as we trundle closer to Mount Hope, the Gateway and the Beardmore Glacier. Stay tuned...

P.S. we were asked if we eat snow - today's picture is of me melting snow that would a few minutes later go into rehydrating this evening's dinner, chicken dhansak (thanks Fuizion!)