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.

The Weather Window

Posted October 21st 2013,
by Francesca Beeching

Category: Travelling to Antarctica

Ben and Tarka left Punta Arenas this morning bound for Antarctica. It will now take several days to get their starting point.

In the meantime here's a short video about waiting for the all-important weather window and a few pictures from the last 10 days of packing and preparation.

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Comments

# Sarah G., October 22nd 2013

Unicorns here in New Braunfels Texas! I love what you’re doing and I hope you accomplish your goal!! You’re simply an inspiration. We love you!

# Jessica Kramer, October 22nd 2013

Hope you have a great expedition Ben, good luck to you all when you land in Antarctica. New Braunfels Unicorns will be following your blog through your journey. Can’t wait to see when you reach your destination.

# James, October 22nd 2013

Hey Me and New Braunfels Highschool just wanted to say we love what your doing and we want to follow you in your journey through the expedition. But before I go there is one favor I may ask is that my class and teacher including me would just be honored if you could mention Mrs.Alamo class we would love that thank you and we are supporting you and hope that you have a good journey.

# dj, October 23rd 2013

Although this blog site hasn’t been updated to indicate it, Ben and Tarka have tweeted that they are at the Union Glacier tonight and hope to continue their journey tomorrow (wed).

I’ve been creating and updating a Google Earth file of the Scott Expedition https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/567495/specialty/TheScottExpedition.kmz which also contains several ancillary files about Antarctic locations in order to give “dimension” to a map which otherwise just a lot of “white.”

The “official” GPS coordinate for Union Glacier is given pretty much in the the middle of a wasteland in the middle of the continent. It looks to be about half-way from Puntas to the Ross Ice Shelf which was given as their ultimate destination for the flight.

I didn’t read them state they were going to land in the middle of the continent; but, perhaps there is a “way station” there of some sort. Puzzlingly, clicking on the “Antarctic Stations and Bases” network link doesn’t show a base or habitation anywhere close to the Union Glacier!  The data could be old, but I hope they aren’t going to need to sleep in their plane seats until next light.

# Kristoffer, October 23rd 2013

Argh, you leaked it early!  I knew about their arrival at Union Glacier too, but didn’t want to spoil the surprise.

# Suzanne Smith, October 23rd 2013

Good luck with the expedition from everyone at Kcom.

# Marc Tyler, October 24th 2013

Ben, I’ve followed your blog for many years even before the days when twitter took over.During this time the one pervading theme that stood out on your journey to get here was perseverance.You are great inspiration to me and many others. I wish you, Tarka and your team a safe and successful journey which will see you passing the One Ton Depot mark down the home straight to a triumphant finish.All the best. You deserve success.

# Laine, October 28th 2013

I hope you have a good trip and I’m glad your doing this in honor of Scott. Best wishes from New Braunfels Highschool!

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