Escape to the Pole by Kevin Biggar

Escape to the Pole by Kevin Biggar

Author:Kevin Biggar [Kevin Biggar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781869794002
Publisher: Random House New Zealand
Published: 2010-01-15T00:00:00+00:00


The good news is that my goggles are working in the heat; although now that I can see, there is nothing to see. Then the clouds start to break up and suddenly there is. I can use a ragged cloud edge as a heading, if only briefly, which provides some relief from not having to look down at the fickle compass needle.

Over on the western horizon there is a strange, angry rust-coloured gloom, the type of cloud that in science-fiction movies hides alien spaceships. No doubt, it’s a storm of some sort. It can’t be raining but doing whatever weird thing Antarctica does, dropping thunderbolts and frogs probably.

Above us the cloud melts away from the ground up, as if raising the curtains on an enormous stage, revealing that we’re walking down a gigantic ramp that stretches out for some kilometres until it reaches a plateau of snow below — it’s the back of a huge snow wave crashing on the cliffs behind us. As the clouds break up, great shafts of sun jab the plain below, creating bright pools of light in the greyness. It’s epic grandeur. It’s March of the Penguins without the penguins. I can imagine the scene from our documentary now. There is a long shot of two tiny figures pulling their sleds, silhouetted against the God rays and Morgan Freeman’s bassy voice intoning, ‘For millions of years, Man has needed to pit himself against the might of Mother Nature …’

Unlike yesterday, the slope really is taking some weight off the sleds. We can stride nearly upright; at times it feels like we’re going almost at walking pace. Each break, when we sit on the back of our sleds having our snacks, we look up to see the peaks of the Independence Range slightly smaller in the distance. It’s just like rowing away from the Canary Islands to cross the Atlantic.

On our last break, I turn to Jamie. ‘You know, however shit this trip turns out, they can never take the second to last shift of Day 8 away from us.’

‘Yeah. Let’s hope it stays like this. Hey, we’ve got the first cache to put out tonight.’

‘That’s right. Imagine what our sleds are going to feel like tomorrow!’

‘Like sports cars.’



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