20-Day Plan (Log #41)
L O U ' S D I A R Y
Day 42 in Antarctica. Lou has a hard day after the high of reaching the Pole. A cold injury on his lips makes eating and drinking difficult. Over the next and final leg he will cover 300 nautical miles. For the home run he's set out a 20-day plan of 15 nautical miles a day. On his first day he covers 15.6 nautical miles...
Dec 14 2018 -
Good evening everyone...
Reporting in on day 42 of the expedition. What a difference a day makes. After the euphoria of reaching Pole yesterday, and all of that, today I had a really hard day. I don’t know why, maybe it’s the comedown of leaving Pole yesterday and then the harsh reality of the fact that I’ve still got a long way to go. This leg is just over 300 nautical miles, so it’s by no means over. But I am on the home run.
The plan is; obviously I’ve looked at this leg before; the Ice Maidens expedition did this leg last year as part of their expedition. They did it at the start. They did it in 26 days. My plan is – I’m on a 20 day plan. I’ll try and crack this leg in 20 days. If I can achieve at least 15 nautical miles a day, I should be able to do it in 20, and shave off a good chunk of that time, despite the fact that I’ve already done well over 400 miles and I’m pretty exhausted. I just felt it today.
Yesterday took a lot out of me; the four o’clock start in the morning, travelling over 16 nautical miles to get to the Pole and beyond, and I just suffered all day, right from the off. Plus I’ve got a medical issue, I’ve got quite a bad cold injury, to my lips. It’s causing me a lot of pain. I’ve never had it before. I’ve seen it on other team members before. Ollie had it on the SPEAR expedition really bad. I’ve got it similar now – quite a bit of damage to my lips and inside the roof of my mouth, which is causing me a huge amount of pain, eating and drinking. It’s just a mass of pus and blood. It was miserable all day, breathing in cold air. You can’t completely cover your mouth, you’ve got to breathe, when you’re skiing along quite hard. There’s no way round it. I was having a consultation with the Doctor tomorrow night on the phone, see if there’s anything in the med pack we can use to try and alleviate the pain a bit, cause it was pretty miserable all day.
But weather conditions were good, and despite the pain I was in, I managed to get in 15.6 nautical miles, so I was quite happy with that. Tomorrow’s another day, hopefully I’ll have a bit more energy and a bit less pain, which will make life a bit more comfortable. But I am on the home run, and with my 20-day plan, which is what I want to go for, I’ve done day one. So hopefully from here, if all goes well, I could complete this expedition in 19 days. There is still a long way to go, and it’s by no means over. I’m staying positive, I’m digging deep. And hopefully, if I can pull this off, then it’ll be absolutely incredible.
That’s all from me for tonight. I’m going to try and get some sleep and get ready to do battle once more.
Onwards...