Latest News
28.12.09
So Close Yet So Far
I've just got off the phone from Felicity and it's clear that they are feeling the magnetic pull of the Pole. At a mere 20 nautical miles away, I suspect they can almost taste it.
They are also preparing for tomorrow evening's live lecture via satellite phone at the National Geographic Store on Regent Street in London. You can find out more about the event at the store's website but it means the girls will be huddled around their satphone answering questions from the public tomorrow evening in what must be some kind of "polar first".
Felicity (UK)'s PodCast:
Link to Podcast
Felicity's PodCast in writing:
"Hello this is Felicity with an update for Day 36. We are now less than 20 nautical miles from the Geographic South Pole which is very exciting. It brings new meaning to the phrase so close and yet so far.
We thought we might be able to see the South Pole station. It's an American research station situated at the South Pole and we thought we might be able to see out on the horizon to day but we haven't been able to see anything yet which is very frustrating. Really desperate to see something.
Our minds have certainly been wandering towards thinking about the end of our expedition and what we're going to do first and I think high on everyone's list is going for a shower, a nice hot shower but we have to wait until we get back to Chile for that. None of us has even seen a shower since the 12th of November which is pretty gross when you think about it particularly as we haven't had a change of clothes since our resupply 3 weeks ago either but its not as bad as it sounds because the cold means that we don't smell too bad.
With the recent "hot weather" (we've had a couple of sunny days in a row) when we're working hard skiing, we've been reminded of quite how dirty we are right now. During the expedition we've been keeping ourselves clean with a daily ration of one Baby Wipe per person per day and we've become very skilled at getting really good mileage out of that one precious baby wipe every day. We've also got a small toothbrush each and some toothpaste but worryingly we're running very low on toothpaste - if we were at home we probably would have probably thrown the tube away by now. Of more concern is that we're also running low on the portable john bags that we use so that we don't leave any human waste in Antarctica. We only have a few left so it's absolutely vital that we get to the Pole soon.
None of us will ever take for granted hot running water or a flushing toilet ever again that's for sure! On that note, I'm off to eat my dinner of lovely chicken chasseur this evening. So we'll speak to you again soon. Bye."
Photo by Robert Hollingworth