Antarctic Heritage Trust The wind doesnt seem as crazy as the last storm either as we built a huge snow wall that mother nature enforced with more deposits of snow. Our camp is solid after six hours of digging and building! Such a surreal scene to encounter, wind so strong it was hard to stand up, the sun eerily peeping through the clouds and all of us digging like mad before it got stronger. And now we get to wait it out playing games and reading.
How do you take your tea? Probably not with milk AND lemon juice! This rather peculiar combination may not have been one of Nansen’s best inventions.
Nansen’s expedition team were only a week or so into the crossing but had already encountered hideous storm conditions, and were fighting unquenchable thirsts. With their drinking water limited, Nansen struck upon the ‘brilliant notion’ of adding citric acid to the group’s tea for extra refreshment. However, they had forgotten about the condens…ed milk which they’d already added to their cups. The result, as Nansen described, was a disaster…
Public domain “…our disappointment when we saw the milk sink to the bottom and slowly curdle was indescribable. We drank the mixture however, and I, who, as the inventor and patentee was bound to set a good example, could say no less than that I found the refreshing qualities of the tea increased by the addition of citric acid in spite of the unwelcome lumps of curd. But this dictum did not meet with general acceptance, and the experiment was never repeated.”
From Nigel: Probably the coldest day so far with a keen wind meaning most opted for goggles and big over-gloves at least for the morning. Skiing into the wind the view is unchanging – flat and white. We strained our eyes to see DYE 2, our next destination point without luck. It is a remnant of the Cold War, an American radar warning site. Mid afternoon we heard a noise and were amazed to see a helicopter fly overhead. We skied on. Excitement today was changing long skis for short ones, which will help with glide and speed. Another 20km day.
Big shout out to Miss Wilkinson, Chris W and class at Christchurch South Intermediate who are following the journey!
Roll on tomorrow.
Antarctic Heritage Trust Making the crossing – Ousland Polar Exploration
From Bengt: We started the day with a happy birthday song for Keith. Bridget made a fantastic birthday card that we all signed, which Keith got after the song.
Keith is the one who is documenting this trip and therefore is the one who always have to walk the longest in a day. He needs to be ahead, in the back, far away, and in the situation – all at the same time… a job that Keith does very well, we all look forward to seeing the result. We did 8 hours of walking yesterday, that gave us 20km. Some wind straight in our face, but realy nice surface. We are now almost at 1800m above sea. We even saw signs of life, two packs of geese. Camp is 52km from Dye2
Antarctic Heritage Trust 
Antarctic Heritage Trust From Bengt: At 0630 the wind settled down, and we quickly understood that we could move. We used a long time to dig out the tents, but finally could start moving.
In the second break, what we thought was a dog-team yesterday came skiing towards us.
It was an English team of six, which is also crossing the cap. No dogs there 🙂
We spent some time talking before we headed away on a slightly different course. In all we did 8 legs of 50min that gave is 17km – all good!
From Bengt: Approx. 0400 the wind came in and at 0600 when we normally start our morning it was quite clear that today would be a tent day. Wind has been stable right under 20 m/s with gusts way above. We have been outside only to do work on the camp.
Ousland Polar Exploration Camping on the ice cap – Ousland Polar Exploration
Antarctic Heritage Trust From Bengt: Another sunny day! We are truly lucky with the weather. Surface is gettin’ better and better and our routines is also getting there. We did 9 legs today, that gave us 19km. There is something behind us that moves, we think it is a dog-team, that is also crossing. Guess we find out today. All good here, cheers!
Update: Still beautiful weather. Routines while on the move are really good now. We’re like a train that steady moves towards DYE2. The terrain is flattening out, with some tiny hills here and there. We’re using the sun as the main indication for navigating.
Behind us we now and then can see another team, we think it’s two dog-teams. In the second last leg a goose flew past us. We built our camp for a stormy night since we know there is weather coming in tonight.
From Bridget: Today we started our journey from dog camp. A camp with no dogs or in fact any camp at all. A perfect white flat spot amongst 500 kms of flat white spots. We skied for two hours in a straight line before Bengt let us take over the navigation. A poor mistake; each of us had our own style of trying to stick to a bearing. Curving back and forth to a non descriptive point on the horizon. It was a day like no other where we skied for eight hours dragging a sled. Perfect weather though and some great conversations.
Antarctic Heritage Trust “I have no doubt there was a pretty general consensus of opinion among us that we had had pleasanter work in the course of our lives, but these opinions we kept each to himself.”
Having finally made it to land, Nansen and his team had to haul their sledge-loads up a steep and uneven gradient, which made dragging the sledges hard work. After three or so miles they set up their camp for the night (pictured below), and Nansen described the “pleasure almost divine” of having multiple cups of hot tea with condensed milk as they settled in to their sleeping bags after their first spell of sledge-hauling (we’re pretty sure the team will relate to this!).
Public domain However, as the group were about to go to sleep they discovered that they had left their only piece of Gruyere cheese at the point where they had stopped for dinner. While they couldn’t stand the thought of leaving it behind, none of them were particularly keen on going back to retrieve it after the day they’d had, until as Nansen noted, Dietrichson volunteered, declaring ‘there was nothing he would like so much’, as it would give him a chance to take a walk before bed!
From Bengt: It is a good feeling to have reached one of our goals. Today we came into Dog Camp. A place that looks like anywhere else here on ice, difference is that we have walked towards this point through the whole icefall. Our next goal is the old radar station DYE2 that is far into the ice.
We did 15.5km on 8 legs of 50 minutes yesterday. Cold and sunny weather.
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Antarctic Heritage Trust
7 Ron Guthrey Road, Christchurch 8053, New Zealand
Private Bag 4745, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand
Antarctic Heritage Trust
7 Ron Guthrey Road, Christchurch 8053, New Zealand
Private Bag 4745, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand
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Alasdair Turner