Captain Scott of Antarctica once infamously said 'Great god
what a ghastly place'. And he's so right in so many ways but also so wrong.
Antarctica is a place of giant contradictions. It's brutal and magnificent - magical and frightening. She is always restless and rarely ambivalent. We had a bit of everything in my 800km sledge dragging 40 day expedition.

Ranging from my crown in my tooth popping out on day two and
eating only on my right side for the next 38 days! Polar thigh - please don't Google and look at the images unless you have a strong stomach. Mine is manageable now and should be ok but was very worrying for a while and then finally glaucoma in my bad eye (some may know of my freak surfing injury from a few years back). We had snow on several occasions (it's never supposed to snow at this time year) and it made the sledges harder to drag. We had brutish winds always coming from the south - the direction we were obviously travelling. Sastrugi, wind formed rivers of ice that were more prolific in areas unexpected - without making navigation difficult and also days of brilliant sunshine and 360 views of sparkling grey and white.

My legs feel like Bambi legs and I'm now at the same weight I was as a teenager 40 years ago!!! The beard also has gone - my family said I looked like Tom Hanks in Castaway.

No regrets - it was an awesome, mind changing experience.

Thank you for your support for such an incredible charity in St Giles Trust.

Much love,

Rob