Day 19: Another Amundsen one...That's nice!
South Pole: Solo but Not Alone
Howard Fairbank
Sun 11 Dec 2011 00:27
Elevation: 1725 metres.
Yeah, crossed the 86th south parallel, three more then the big 90! Every day a new milestone for me: The furtherest south on the planet I have eve been! It's quite special as I imagine the globe and see myself 'upside down' walking to it's southern most point.
The other thing about crossing a line of latitude, I get to open on of Ruth's 'latitude cards' she made for me.... Small things, but they mean a lot out here.
To reward myself for achieving the milestone, I delved into my spare food stocks, and found 2 pieces of Josee's delicious lunch fruitcake...one for desert tonight, andd one for breakfast in the morning. It should have been an extra whisky celebration, but stock is 'very tight'! (Not from excessive helpings, but rather, being heavy, it was always going to be a scarce resource!
Talking about scarce resources, my daily food ration is not quite enough....I eat every crumb, and am always scrounging around for 'hidden' spare. It's amazing how hungry I get, and mydaily rations are very generous (vs some other expeditions)
Well, the GPS says: 29 kilmetres reeled out today, in nine hours 'marching'. It was an 'Amundsen day', perfect accordig to plan, and perfect weather to complement. A light headwind in the beginning, dropped by lunch, and then almost 'hot' conditions. Blue sky and sun the whole day, no clothing layer changes, and no frozen hand problems. So much 'in the zone' time, and not much to report!
My foot was much better, but still not 100%.
After downloading all that philosophical stuff yesterday, today, was a 'private, mindless' on the ice, day!
I'll give you another day or two re the 'Purpose of Life insight....
This morning was the 1st morning I slept through the alarm..mainly due to a late Blog night....Haha, I do enjoy writing to you guys, but I'm taking an early night tonight....Give you a cjhance to hone those comments to yesterday's blog!
Cheers