Antarctica Q&A and updates

Friday 9th January

Position: 88° 33.19S, 080° 05.73W

Completed over 20 kilometres, a great achievement and bringing us tangibly closer to our goal. 
I was absolutely exhausted...the lack of oxygen combined with the high wind and temperature below -30°C was getting to me and Conrad was whipping me on!

We have to brew up litre upon litre of snow to keep us hydrated tomorrow.

Is it as tough as expected?

"It's far more difficult than I thought it would be"

Biggest hurdle?

"The altitude is the biggest problem"

Was training worthwhile?

"Yes, the training has really paid off"

What would you change?

"If I could change anything, it would be to get a helicopter and go to the Bahamas!

"...but apart from that, I love Conrad to bits and apart from the fact that he's beating me up every day we seem to be moving along fairly well. I think we've done slightly more than a quarter of the trip and with a bit of luck we might get there in nine days if the weather stays fair!"


Listen to Patrick answering these questions




Saturday 10th January

Position: 88° 42.81S, 079° 57.51W

Today we covered 18 km, and the temperature reached -40°C.
We saw sun dogs which are caused by ice crystals in the air.

A sundog - a halo around the sun

Amazingly, my feet are absolutely fine - Conrad was quite right about these being the only boots for the job. The poor boots were what let down many people on Prince Harry's Walking With the Wounded expedition.

Conrad's expensive jacket having a broken zip is extremely unfortunate, as I'm sure you can imagine in -40°C and high wind; he is having to lash it together with all sorts of things!

This is so much more difficult than I expected, I'm glad we're over one third of the way through!

Sunday 11th January

Position: 88° 54.04S, 079° 39.26W

(Phone call on Monday morning)

We weren't able to phone yesterday evening because I was exhausted and had huge breathing problems because of bronchial inflammation from the weather.

I'm able to phone this morning because I've taken homeopathic remedies overnight and this morning, and I'm much, much better. I'm hoping that homeopathic altitude pills will be my rescue.

The reason I'm calling:

Conrad and I reckon that doing this is worse than running a marathon a day. We're dragging a sledge that you're at 4000m altitude, at an average temperature of -30°C. That is why the challenge is so unbelievably difficult...to do it day after day for up to 15 days!

Listen to Patrick say this, and hear the breathlessness in his voice: