Nansen's Expedition Reaches Land

“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!