Expedition Antarctic Day 9: 7th Continent and Camping on ice

Well today I became part of a very exclusive club (or so I thought) who’ve managed to set foot on all 7 continents. This one is very special though. I’ve been away from home now for sometime and home seems almost hard to conceive of now. I can see how people have been seduced by Antarctica and find it hard to leave. Please don’t get me wrong. I miss my family terribly but it feels like I’m on another planet here and my other life is just too far away to control so I’ve temporarily let go of it. I again failed to get satellite comms. going which has left me way behind on posting video and photos to the expedition website. One more time from Vernadsky Station and hopefully more successful this time. At the end of the day we camped out on a ice dome in Paradise Harbour. I came to admire Robert Swan even more tonight for 2 reasons. First because I’m only now realising that my understanding of his achievements reaching 2 poles on foot were only a fragment of the understanding I have now. Secondly we had around 80 people camping tonight and I heard him check that absolutely every single one was tucked in warmly with no possibility of freezing. A care of leadership that I’ve rarely ever come across. The night wasn’t as tough as I thought. I was convinced I had no sleep at all but I must have managed a good 5 or so hours. The worst was around 3 when I was both dying for a pee and cold. I put the inevitable off for around 45 minutes then ventured off behind some rocks. Peeing at minus 10 from under 4 layers is far from easy but just barely managed. Grabbing a couple of hand warmers on the way back into my sleeping bag made the whole venture worth the excursion. I woke up from the whole experience preparing to whinge but you know it wasn’t that bad. But box ticked and not rushing to do it again. My little bunk rocking in the Drake tonight will do just fine.

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