EXPLORER Pen Hadow exchanged the icy extremes of the North Pole for the warm conviviality of a civic reception held in his honour on Tuesday when he received the honorary Freedom of the Borough.

West Devon mayor Peter Hill presented the award to Pen ? the first time it has been given in the borough?s 21 years. It was bestowed to mark the explorer?s solo trek to the North Pole, via the toughest route, in May.

Cllr Hill said Pen, who has lived at Hexworthy with his wife and two children for the past eight years, thoroughly deserved the honour.

?You will be an inspiration to young people ? and those that are older,? he said.

Cllr Hill felt Pen?s endeavours would help others believe they too could succeed at difficult tasks.

He said it took ?great mental strength and fortitude? to sustain such a venture as Pen?s Polar trek.

In response Pen said he was ?very touched? to be given the honour.

He said he felt he was a ?member of the Dartmoor community?, having been living on the moor for the past eight years.

?Our children are schooled on Dartmoor and my wife Mary and I both work from home on Dartmoor.?

Pen, 41, told the gathering of invited guests that he organised a number of selective courses on Dartmoor for people wanting to go on Polar expeditions, although some people expressed surprise at the location due to there being little snow.

?It doesn?t really matter. Snow and the cold are just two forms of environmental pressure.

?On Dartmoor we make sure it?s uncomfortable and fatiguing so that the level of stress that we are able to produce is the same as those when going to the North Pole.?

Pen said Dartmoor has served its purpose to enable quite a few people to go to the North Pole. Stress, anxiety and discomfort were all on the agenda so that potential candidates did not know what to expect next ? abseiling over water or a five-mile run.

At the end Pen says he can ?look them in the eye and say what you are going to do is easier than what you did on Dartmoor!?

To keep fit he spends several hours a day training ? running, using a mountain bike, and a rowing machine indoors when it is raining.

Pen uses the infamous Fox Tor Mire for training purposes ? weighing himself down with extra pounds of baggage.

?It keeps me on edge and in tune because going through the thin skin of the mire is akin to thin ice,? he said, and then regaled the guests with how he lost one of his skis during his Polar trek by the ice breaking beneath him.

The bronzed and bearded explorer has a wry humour which is clearly an advantage when pitting mental strength against arduous challenges.

He said 75 per cent of the people he had taken were desperate to go back because the Poles has qualities that were pretty hard to find in this world.

?It is a true wilderness that dislocates you from modern day living. It is a very simple lifestyle, simple and challenging ? but most of all simple.?

The Polar experience was, he said, ?almost monastic and therefore therapeutic? for people who went there.

He said there were more risks involved in mountaineering than travelling to the polar region which was very much a mental challenge.

Pen wanted to thank the 65 people who had helped and gone the ?extra mile? to make his solo trek possible. ?I?m intensely grateful to all the people that have helped me ? and more than half have come from this borough.?

Pen will be making an announcement about his next expedition on August 6. In the meantime there are no clues. It does not involve the Arctic ? but he says ?it does involve snow?.

Also in the pipeline will be a book and a TV documentary.