Maybe the age of exploration and adventure isn’t dead after all. Yesterday the BBC reported on the removal of three British explorers who had been trekking across the Arctic on a mission to measure the thickness of sea ice.
The news story isn’t your average intrepid-rescuer tidbit. Instead, it’s an in-depth look at the experience of exploring in extreme conditions, which, even in our global-warming and technological age, can still be hair-raising and life-threatening, just as it was when Apsley Cherry-Garrard wrote his epic book, The Worst Journey in the World, about Captain Scott’s 1913 attempt to reach the South Pole in Antarctica (possibly my favorite travel book of all time).
The BBC piece includes live video interviews, and clips from earlier newscasts as the British public followed their explorers on this important but ultimately truncated mission. The scientists talk about the serious frostbite they’ve suffered (and describe its pain exquisitely — the Marquis de Sade might be proud), and their hunger. Their food supplies dipped when supply flights were cancelled due to bad weather, and the three people were down to 80 grams of food per day and a teaspoon of milk.
Makes me hungry just thinking about it. Luckily, they are not traveling in Cherry-Garrard’s time, and were finally rescued and given a hot meal and showers. Although the team was lifted out ten days early partly due to the summer ice break-up, they did manage to make 16,000 measurements of sea ice during their journey, adding invaluable information about the health of our planet.
Ten weeks in horrendous conditions, with limited food supply and the threat of freezing to death, all in the name of giving humanity another little lift in our efforts to survive on this little blue rock. Now that’s traveling.
