Today was one of those wonderful days you will recall from your from childhood where time slowed and every minute felt like an hour. I slept in as it was a luxurious day of self enforced rest, not through injury thankfully but through necessity as the extreme weather has slightly delayed the Russians who are building the temporary landing strip that will accommodate the aircraft taking me and the lucky few who will realise their polar dreams in 2011. Given that the aircraft I will be flying in on will be separated from the icy depths of the Arctic Ocean, by just a few inches of ice, I’m happy for them to take their time and get it right! It is not as though I have nothing to do, I’m surrounded by exciting opportunities such as polar bear tracking, dog sledding, ice fishing and skidoo tours of the island but I have come here with the single purpose of bagging the geographic north pole and as interesting as all these other things are, they are just distractions. I know from my previous experience on the ice just how tough this will be and I’m not underestimating this in any way which is probably a good thing. This will be longer than I’ve ever been on the ice for in one stint, pushing more miles per day than I’ve done before with people I don’t know, who speak a language I don’t understand. But the challenge is precisely why I am here. If it was easy, I wouldn’t be doing it….
