POLAR explorer Pen Hadow has returned home after becoming the first Briton to trek unsupported to both the North and South geographic Poles.
Speaking from a London hotel room on Tuesday, Pen ? who lives on Dartmoor at Hexworthy ? said he was ?very excited? about getting back to see his children, not having seen them since November 15. He was planning to take his son to school the following day and his 20-month old daughter to toddler group ?to see the mums?. He had been greeted on his arrival at Heathrow Airport by his wife Mary.
Pen?s companion on the trek ? which started on December 2 and ended on January 28 ? was 63-year-old Simon Murray, who became the oldest person for over a decade to walk from the edge of continental Antarctica to the geographic South Pole.
Before embarking on the expedition Pen had put on weight to cope with the weight-loss he would encounter en route. ?I lost one-and-a-half stone, but Simon lost two. We ate 3,500 calories per day, but were burning 7,500,? he said. They both pulled sledges containing their supplies and equipment, with Pen?s weighing 28 stone for the first 30 days.
?We were pulling the sledges for 8-9 hours per day, but had a break every 80 minutes,? he said. Undertaking the trek ?unsupported? meant they could not receive any additional supplies or help on the way, so had to take everything with them.
The major problem the couple encountered physically en route ? apart from the usual white-outs, blizzards and strong headwinds ? was crevasse, or fissures, at latitude 87°S. ?The winds were not as strong as anticipated, but the temperature ranged from -5°C at the beginning to -40°C plus wind-chill, making it feel much colder, at the South Pole,? said Pen.
But mentally the pair had difficulty carrying on after Simon?s wife ? who was at the same time trying to become the first to fly, with a co-pilot, from pole to pole in a helicopter ? was involved in a big helicopter crash in Antarctica on her way back from the South Pole.
?We were in a tent 200 miles away and had to wait to see if she was going to be OK. The co-pilot had a severe spinal injury and we couldn?t carry on mentally until we knew he was going to be better,? Pen said. Simon?s wife, although knocked unconscious, was ?shaken but not stirred?, he added, suffering a dislocated elbow.
As well as achieving their own goals, the explorers raised over a quarter of a million pounds for the Royal Geographical Society?s polar archive restoration. Pen explained that this would restore maps, journals, photographs and other artefacts from the likes of the Scott and Amundsen expeditions, and the artefacts would also be photographed digitally and catalogued. Pen said the society was opening its doors to the public in London from June of this year, but the photographs would be published on the Web, meaning that people did not have to go to London to see them.
The mayor of West Devon Borough Council, Cllr Peter Hill, sent his own message of personal congratulations to Pen ? who was made a Freeman of the Borough last August.
Pen, who is writing a book for, rather appropriately, Penguin publishers this spring and summer, said he did not anticipate embarking on any other adventures ?for at least 12 months?, but ?things might happen again in 2005 or 2006?. ?It?s what I do ? it?s in my blood? he explained.