Day 51 – South Pole!
Day 51
90 degrees South
Altitude 2839m
Daily distance
10.77nm
Well, I only went and bloody did it!
Arrived at the South
Pole at 1730 Chilean time (3 hours behind UK)
I had perfect conditions all
day along with the very cold temperatures up here on the plateau.
I started
to count the miles down gradually but stopped every now and then to take in the
last of the solitude and admire the barren beauty of this place. It’s very
unlikely I’ll experience this again so wanted to take as much in as I could.
About 5 nautical miles out I could start to see black shapes on the horizon
in front and slightly to the right. This was a relief as I had to aim off west a
bit to avoid ‘no go’ zones and then dogleg back in. Very soon I was picking up
other tracks from previous expeditions and last degree trips so I knew I was
going ok. Those 5 miles went on for what seemed an eternity, the buildings not
wanting to get any closer. When I drew level it looked like Moon Base Alpha or
if it should belong to a James Bond set. Eventually when I arrived at the ALE
camp, a handful of staff came out to greet me and it was such a relief to take
off the harness for the last time.
Obligatory South Pole pictures were taken
at both the ceremonial and geographical markers and then I went and stuffed my
face in the tented canteen they have followed by three plates of dinner. Such
nice food but too much before having to put my tent up! Back in for a
celebratory beer before retiring and I can sleep through until whenever I like
tomorrow before I get flown back to Union Glacier later in the day. It’s looking
like I’ll be there for a few days before heading back to Punta Arenas on
Monday.
Feeling pretty happy right now as well as relieved. Time to let the
enormity of it all to sink in for now and I’ll post my thoughts in the next
couple of days before leaving Antarctica.
#heartinternet #diabetesuk #curraNZ #expeditionfoods #primalpantry
#antarcticligisticsandexpeditions #solo #southpole #antarctica
#seediabetesdifferently
Well done Neil, now stop mucking about and get back to work #QEC/POW4EVA
Well done Neil – Can you get me some malboro lights from the airport ? Thanks
Congratulations Neil! I’m very proud of you. Can’t wait to hear about it!
Great achievement mate. Looking forward to hearing all about it.
Congratulations Neil. Have been following the blog and your progress towards towards your goal. Impressive that you have achieved this solo and without any major problems. Great to read and draw comparisons with our trip across Greenland almost 10 years ago, which has also brought back many good memories. Alex and I have been talking about getting the gang back together in spring for a few beers. Hope to see you then.
Fantastic Neil, not only we are all proud of you, you should feel extremely proud of yourself. Well done mate!
John
Really amazing to read all about your preparation and adventures on your way to the South Pole. Inspiring a new generation to do something amazing in future. Thank you for letting us read and enjoy blog – Mr Browne, Year 6 teacher, Codicote Primary School.
Hey great job man! You must have been very BRAVE!!! and we’ve been learning about you in our ICT lesson and we read your blog!!! Its amazing man!!! your blog is just amazing!!! Anyway, bye!!!
Well done. I enjoyed reading your blog it has helped me in I.C.T to learn how to organise a proper blog.
Your blog has inspired me. Well done for your amazing achievement! 😀
Well done Neil I don’t know you personally but i think you did an outstanding job, you should be really proud of yourself! Your blog is great because it is set out really well and your tone is great even though you spent 51 days in antarctica in the freezing cold walking constantally all day everyday you should feel really proud!
Well Done Neil you did an outstanding job you should overjoyed with your self!!!!! You did a fabulous and inspiring blog and has helped me with mine thanks and you sound really nice and i have used your Blog loads in ICT lessons and it helped a treat thanks
Hi, We have been using this blog for are ICT work. Your Blog help me a lot in ICT and well done for achieving that! Your blog is really helpful for are ICT work. Thanks!
Wow that’s is so incredible.We have been using this blog as an inspiration in our ICT lessons and i know we are only kids but we would never dream of doing this.Incredible,Well done Neil! Good luck for the future!☻☻☻
well done we have been using your blog as an example for our ICT lesson and it has been very useful using the structure of your blog to start my own one. Congratulations on reaching the south pole
hattie
Well done Neil congratulations on your expedition great job!We have been using your blog for inspiration in our ICT lessons and your blog has helped us a lot,so a job well done to you.
Wow that was amazing. Well done, I have loved to hear about your fabulous trip. We have been using your blog in our ICT lessons it inspired us a lot. ☻☻☻
This is amazing well done☺. I have enjoyed reading your blogs in our ICT lessons. You have been such an inspiration to us all. Your blogs have helped me to write my own blog.☻☻
Hello! I have really enjoyed looking at your blog x its so cool how you have been to the south pole, it must have been so clod there. how did you get internet there? you really inspired me to make my own blog (Its not as exiting as yours though) you have given my ideas and i really like how you survived the cold
WELL DONE X 🙂
This is such a big achievement.I used this as an example for my blog in ICT the blog is very interesting 😀 😀 😀
Well done on your great achievement. I have been using your blog to inspire me to wright my own. This blog is very interesting and the fact its daily is amazing alot of hard work has gone into this but anyway bye well done 😀
Hello. Well done. I’m glad that you enjoyed your trip. I have been looking at your blog and it has been really helpful and fun to read thank you for your info. This has helped in my I.C.T. lessons at school and has helped me by showing how to keep a blog and how interesting it is. Thank you and really well done.
Well done Neil, that is an amazing achievement. Your blog has inspired us to write our own blogs. We have used your amazing blog in our ICT lesson to help us write our own blogs. Well done once again. ☺
Well done! This blog is great and it helps with our I.C.T. work in school. It has helped me to do my setting out. In class we have read a lot of your blog. I think it is great what you did both going to the South Pole and the blog. Again well done and great work. Did you enjoy it and would you do it again?
Well done Neil you must be extremely proud of your self. Your blog was very useful in our I.C.T lesson and I enjoyed seeing your progress . We read all about you and your journey and it was great that you kept on going and didn’t stop even if there were rough times. Once again you and your family should be proud!
well done Neil we have used your blog in I.T.C lesson we’ve been seeing your blog for over a month now your family should be very proud i found it very interesting from Alfie year 6
well done this blog has been a great help for me in my ICT lessons when i was struggling to write a blog in the software BLOGGER i do have some questions what did you do about food and drink and also what was your favourite piece of equipment you took .
Well dome Neil what you did was incredible I think you have inspired a lot of people even me, We used your blog to help us with are I.C.T lessons on blogs with what to do and what not to do. Thank you for posting all these blogs its been very interesting to read and to find out all the the information once again thank you very much.
Well done ? ! You must have been very tired once you finished! It’s amazing that you can do something that is so amazing thank you for your blog it was very helpful to us in ICT/ Our own blog. ??. Congratulations! We have read your blog in ICT it is really cool. :V
Congrats ! ?
Well done for completing your trip to the South Pole, your blog was very interesting to read and helped me write my own blog at school. It gave me an idea on what to writ in a blog. You must have been very happy when you finally reached the South Pole!
Hi Neil I have enjoyed reading your blog and it has helped me greatly in ICT. I wish I was brave enough to go solo to the South Pole. It must have felt so good to have done so well. My favourite bit was your post on day 50.
Sam
Wow Neil that’s amazing I can’t believe that you were able to do it. Your blog is such an insparation to people around the world who are not sure if they can do it or not. In ICT we are doing blog about things that we like just like you did, and we will do some diary blogs about something. You should be so proud of yourself!!!!