The Race Is On (Log #7)

L O U ' S   D I A R Y  

Day 6 in Antarctica. American Colin O'Brady appears on Lou's tail and a level race, backed by the 80s music in Lou's headphones, ensues across the ice. After 11 hours and 15.4 nautical miles Lou pitches his tent for the night...

Nov 8 2018 - 

Good evening everyone,

Reporting in now on day 6 of the expedition. So I woke this morning and I was a little surprised when I looked out of the tent and spotted Colin, the American guy attempting the same journey, camped some 500m down from me. I packed up and he got going about half an hour before me and headed off and very much for most of the day we were level pegging and at one point we got close enough and had a quick chat, but then obviously very keen to maximise the solo experience, so pulled off to the flank and kept about a kilometre apart throughout the day.

We were fairly evenly matched on pace throughout the entire day. He then carried on slightly longer, I got to 7 o’clock and I’d been going for 11 hours by that point and I decided to stop there. I think he pushed on for about another hour or so and I can see him camped a bit further ahead. 

Big day – probably because we were both pushing each other I guess, and managed to achieve 15.4 nautical miles, which is pretty huge at this stage of the game, while the pulks are still heavy. My game plan is to stick to my own plans, and not get drawn into a direct race There’s still a long, long way to go and a lot can happen yet, so I’m going to stay focused on my plan. Hopefully we’ll naturally separate, it’d be better I think to be out here on our own experiencing the solo journey as it should be.

Quite difficult conditions today – I lost the light and it’s pretty much whiteout all day which is when you lose complete definition of the ground so I couldn’t really see what I was skiing over. I noticed that myself and Colin taking a few tumbles throughout the day and it just made progress quite difficult going. I think it’s forecast to be like this for the next two or three days from what I can see so far, so some difficult days ahead which makes navigation difficult and the hauling difficult.

There have been some questions about my playlist – listened to a lot of 80s music, dad 80s music today, the era I grew up, so a bit of that. I’ll probably listen to an audio book tomorrow, I find that’s quite good actually, particularly when you’re on your own, to actually to hear a voice talking, it’s a bit of company. So I’ll probably have that going.

I imagine another big day tomorrow and I’ll just keep pushing out the mileage.

That’s all for today. It’s been a long day, and to get my six or seven hours of sleep and do it all again tomorrow. Thank you very much. Goodnight.

Onwards.