Ten Days on the Ice: Spin-my-Blog Post

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Spin-my-Blog Post

So we now heading back the way we came, back to our starting points. We're hoping to be extracted on Wed afternoon. We should have enough time to get back. If the weather does not get bad again. But everyone's phoned it's folks(?), no major concerns & something to look forward to. Getting back to the UK on Sun. Bye.

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2 comments:

koffshun said...: How disappointing that you couldn't make it all the way across to Pangnirtung.
I hope you get back to Qikiqtarjuaq safely though. If only so we can get some idea of how to pronounce these names!
Missing you (you know who you are) take care these next few days.
xx; 4:33 PM
Anonymous said...: How you have managed to keep going in such appalling conditions only Heaven knows!
You must not be disappointed and we all hope you have many photos to share with us on your return.
Keep safe.
Can't wait for a hug from baby no.2; 1:15 AM

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Last week a friend of mine asked me to take part in a 10 day trek for charity across the icy wastes of Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic.
"It will be fun", she said, "It will be minus 25 degrees, you have to dig your own hole out of the ice if you need the loo and there might be polar bears, but it's a chance of a lifetime. Really."
"Yes yes," I said. "Sounds like a blast. I will certainly give it every consideration. Bye." Some people are absolutely barking mad, I thought as I hung up the phone.
But then somehow, after a few days thought, I agreed to take part. I had become the 12th and last person to sign up to the trek in aid of Mitchemp Trust, a children's charity. And I think I may have lost my mind.
Let me be quite clear about this. I am not some sort of fitness freak or adrenaline junkie. I am a 29-year-old financial journalist who has spent several years being taken out for lunch to nice restaurants by PRs. I don't do extreme sports, I do corporate hospitality.
My friends describe me as "well built" and say things like "well you don't look that heavy", while my father, who has never felt the need to protect my ego, calls me "fat".
I have a number of unhealthy vices and I have no real desire to give any of them up.
So why did I agree to go on this lunatic escapade? Well, as soon as i work that out out I will let you know. It's obviously for a very good cause and the chance to visit somewhere as unspoilt as Baffin Island doesn't come along every other day. I think its partly to do with the fact that I need a really good reason to get fit again. But all that sounds quite flippant. Lets just call it a big challenge and leave the psychology bollocks for another day.
This blog is a diary of what happens now. Think of it as Bridget Jones crossed with Sir Ernest Shackleton.
I have a little over six months to get fit enough to walk 140 miles over 10 days in one of the coldest and least hospitable places on the planet. A place so brutally frigid that skin suffers the first signs of frostbite after just a few minutes of exposure to the open air.
Wish me luck.

Ten Days on the Ice

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Spin-my-Blog Post

2 comments:

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