Camp: Sam Butler (Jonathon’s nephew)
Date: 7/12/07
Position: S84.5989, W086.4098
Temperature: -14c
Weather: Whiteout
Distance today: 26km
Distance to Pole: 603km
Dispatcher: Jonathon
My turn to make breakfast, I wake up, put on my down clothing, hat and gloves, I suddenly stop, I can’t hear the stoves from Pat & Clare’s tent (they are always up before us!) I check my watch, it is 12.00am – only 6 hours too early, so I go back to bed.
I wake up again, put on my out door gear and unzip the inner tent to light the stoves, I stop to listen for sounds from the other tent, nothing! I check my watch – its 3am, still 3 hours too early!
I am so paranoid about being late for breakfast, which in turn means we would be late leaving, and Pat & Clare would be waiting for us in the cold…not a good thing to do out here.
Today was a whiteout, it is impossible to see the terrain, so we were skiing blind. We had to take it easy, as it is simple to fall in these conditions and a turned ankle would be a disaster.
Strangely there was no wind today, which gave us some of the mildest temperatures we have experienced -14c, which meant we could linger slightly longer at each break.
I have not been feeling too well over the last 2 days and so was glad that whatever it was, has now ‘passed’ and now feeling much stronger.
We are only about 2 days from the half way point, a huge motivational goal for us to reach.
Jon
