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.
Old Tracks (Day 96)
Day 96: S80° 33' 18", E168° 47' 36"
Duration: 9 Hr 30 Min
Daily distance: 24.8 Mi
Distance to go: 222.7 Mi
Temperature: -14 °C
Wind chill: -17 °C
Altitude: 200 Ft
The weather this morning, to our surprise, was corking, with blue skies, hardly any wind and only a few streaks of cloud loitering around. It was colder too, and the the combination of sun and chill seemed to make the surface quite sandy and gritty, which slowed us down a bit. Captain Scott seemed obsessed by surface and glide, and with their wooden and metal sledge runners that apparently needed constant attention and de-icing, I can understand why. Even our carbon and kevlar composite sledges (with runners made of some sort of low-friction plastic) seemed a great deal heavier today, like some gremlin had been filling them with rocks while we slept.
The weather started clouding over towards the end of our today, though we never lost the surface contrast completely and we were amazed to stumble across our two-month-old outbound tracks in the early evening, following them for the last two sessions and camping next to them tonight. They're raised clear of the surface, like railway lines, and while they've been blasted away by the wind or hidden by drift or low patches of sastrugi in places, they're easy to follow and make navigating a piece of cake.
Mentally, today wasn't quite so grim, and I had a few sparks of excitement as I followed Tarka this afternoon, finally allowing myself to start to appreciate that we're actually getting close to completing the journey that Captain Scott perished trying to achieve. While I'm not normally superstitious in any sense, I almost daren't think about finishing this vast trip for fear of jinxing things at the eleventh hour, but something about seeing our old tracks again snapped me out of our goldfish-style routine of only thinking as far ahead as what we're going to eat at the next break.
Speaking of which, I mentioned double rations a while ago. We're still limited to our normal day's rations at the moment, but there's a depot that we're on track pick up on Saturday 1st that's loaded with food so we can push the boat out then for the last few days, which in our current states is a very exciting prospect indeed...
Comments
# Ariane, January 29th 2014
You are not the same men who made those tracks, now are you.
HRH ;)
# Andrea, January 29th 2014
A more individuated you, a more performed yourselves; a more performed individual capacities for: your joy of doing this expedition.Like, the same Antarctica has produced the today’s pictorial landscape.
# Suri, January 29th 2014
I thought they are Santa’s tracks from last X-mas. You can follow them to reach north pole. ;)
God Speed!!!
# Mal Owen, January 29th 2014
The days now are much less than ten
For these strong and courageous men
They take pics of oneself
as they cross the Ross shelf
In 3 days will feast once again
Perhaps we could have a poetry page on site to gather all lyrical offerings as it would be good to encourage our younger followers with their writing skills.
Let’s hope the Gremlins keep away from the sledges for the next few days and that tomorrow’s blog reports you’re now in the one hundreds!
# Richard Pierce, January 30th 2014
I second that. And all poems & limericks to be included in the book :-) R
# Intrepid, January 30th 2014
This is not about Antarctica or what it is like to zip out of a sleeping bag every morning, pick up camp, and slog for 9 hours in extreme conditions of a frozen barren land, sometimes being ridiculously cold, sometimes desperately blue. This poem has feeling; it touches the place called life we are all sojourners of.
To Ben and Tarka,
May your feelings
always stay true.
I WILL HAVE BECOME
by David Whyte
I will have become like
the madman running
to see the moon
in the window,
the hawk
I saw tracing the cliff edge
above the river.
I will be the man
I have pursued all along
and finally caught.
I will be
all my intuitions
and all my desires
and then I will walk
slowly down the steps
as if dressed in white
and wade into
the water for
a second baptism.
I will be like
someone who cannot
hide their love
but
my joy will become ordinary
and everyday
and like a lover
I will find out
exactly what it is like
to be the happiest,
the only one
in creation
to really
understand how much,
I’m just
a hair’s breadth
from dying.
Excerpted from MORTALITY MY MISTRESS, in RIVER FLOW: new and Selected Poems
Copyright David Whyte and Many Rivers Press
# Richard Pierce, January 30th 2014
Taking Ben’s “monochrome rainbow” as a start.
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
# Andrea, January 30th 2014
Visible in the Day 93 picture, if may I.
And the ghosts perceive the ether and the presence of the ether as they are human spirit.
# Sheila England, January 30th 2014
You two are wonderful! Nearing the home stretch!!!
Our hearts continue with you!
-Sheila
# Sheila England, January 30th 2014
You two are doing such an incredible job, & nearing the home stretch!!!
Our hearts continue with you!
-Sheila
# Austin Duryea, January 30th 2014
GO BABY. Y’all almost are there. 221 miles to go. Man I am singing right know. Great job guys.
# Steve, January 30th 2014
I’ve seen raised tracks from dog sleds and snowmobiles treads and skis in the Canadian Arctic. The treads look like ladders.
# Anton Uhl, February 3rd 2014
OMG you guys! you are down to two digits in miles!!!
Can you hear us yelling at the finish line?!
You are awesome!!
Almost there!