The position here is N83?32’30”, E103?09’24”. We have walked 16 km today, and strong winds last night gave us another 5 km of northerly progression. Fortunately the wind calmed down considerably by the time we started walking. The weather forecast is a more northerly wind, but we’re hoping the meteorologist is mistaken. Right now it’s completely calm, no wind howling over the tent.
The ice was a bit rougher during the first part of the day, giving way to flat, wide-open surfaces this afternoon. We’re walking mostly on older ice, formed last year, which is far more stable then the ice we saw earlier. There haven’t been any signs of ice movement or open leads today either – and that’s a great advantage for us.
The moon is gone now. It gets dark early. But there are a couple of hours in the middle of the day with extraordinary light. It’s quite a show! The southern horizon is gorgeous with a tinge of reddish orange, and somewhere below it the sun is waiting for us.
We’ve put in a good day and are exhausted after our nine hours on ice and snow. That is about as much as we can manage, seeing the extent of our chores in the morning and evening. In a couple of days, we’re planning to grab a day of rest – it will soon have been 14 days since our last one. It’s going to be great to just stretch out our bodies, relax and get some extra sleep. And for that we’ll be rewarded when we continue our journey.
Before that, however, we’re looking forward to normal rations. I’m getting very hungry and keep thinking about restaurants and tasty dinners that I’ve enjoyed through the years. It’s going to be a relief to eat a normal meal; but I’ve saved up my three extra day rations. That way we have the option of spending a few extra days out here, extending our expedition to 70 days. We now have 41 days of food left and 721 km to go. If we reach our goal in the month of March, we’ll still be the first ones to walk to the North Pole in winter.
