A Changing World - by Brian Newham

A Changing World – by Brian Newham

In slowly deteriorating conditions we travelled the final few km to the Princess Elisabeth Research Station. I think we were all immersed in our own thoughts, reflecting on the fact that this is the end of our travels.

Arriving at the station was a strange experience. It’s clearly manmade and it marks our return to a world of human endeavour but it’s deserted. Nobody spends the winter here and the Belgian team that separate the station and the scientists that work here will not arrive until the first aircraft makes its noisy intrusion in a week or so. So, we are still alone, the bubble is still intact but the feeling of remoteness is slipping away.

Camp is now established about 300m from the station and since we arrived the weather has closed in. It’s snowing and there is light drift in the air. Looking back towards the south our tracks are already being covered and the mountains, which have given us so much pleasure over the last few weeks, are hidden behind a curtain of cloud. The world we have known has gone. Perhaps we will get another glimpse but it’s not going to be the same.

There are 4 comments

Posted by GREGO on November 2, 2013 @ 12:13 pm

Must be a strange emotion you guys are going through at the moment , but how lucky are you to be going through such emotions . make the most it and well done

Posted by Fridtjof Nansen on November 3, 2013 @ 10:57 am

Great to see you guys made it back safely. A wonderful ambition to cross Antarctica in winter and great that the feat remains alive for others to dream and achieve in perhaps a less mechanical fashion.

Posted by Annac on November 3, 2013 @ 12:01 pm

To return to the ‘real’ world is perhaps the most difficult adjustment. After the struggle of returning the arrival with inevitably be an anticlimax, no flag waving, no celebration. but i am sure those who have followed your progress all these months are glad of your safe return. We celebrate that with you now.

Posted by Ghislain on November 3, 2013 @ 5:53 pm

I daily followed your adventure and I fully understand and admire the courage required to face totally adverse conditions. In my view however the only regrettable point I felt from the start of your expedition is related to a sentence in the web page telling that “a success will reassert Britain’s status as the world’s greatest nation of explorers”. As such it reflects a totally outdated mentality “à la Scott” and, even if your endeavour would have reached a full success, there are many other not british great explorers and it is completely futile to establish a classification among them.
All the team members nevertheless fully deserve congratulations and should be thanked for making us dream about unspoiled horizons.

A Changing World – by Brian Newham