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accepting that it's there and that I have no control over it, and going
with the flow of whatever Mother Nature with all her power hurls at
me. Like I did in the heat in the Simpson Desert, the awesome sunrises
I saw running around Australia and the endless raw and beautiful ter-
rain of the American plains and deserts, I marvel at the Arctic Circle,
curse it, cajole it, and try not to let it kill me.
Tonight, like all those people in the world who are
not
doing it
tough in the ice at the top of the world, we're all enjoying our Easter
eggs. As well as the eggs and alcohol, which amazingly landed intact,
there were the essentials: food, fuel for our gas burners to heat
the tents, cook meals and melt ice for our thermoses, new skis and
boots to replace our busted ones, notes and goodwill messages. I
wolfed down my chocolate egg, and it tasted indescribably wonder-
ful. Unfortunately, it also triggered memories of one of my favourite
Sydney haunts, a chocolate cafe where I often take Brooke and Dillon.
We have steaming sweet hot chocolates, and waffles laden with rich
chocolate sauce, strawberries and bananas. Oh, man. Heaven. It's a
pity that those waffles will be off my menu for many, many months
yet. I took the toy from my egg, a plastic robot, and for the rest of the
polar section he'll be standing guard at the end of my sleeping bag to
keep watch for marauding polar bears. Our Easter treat was a small
pleasure, but it was the highlight of our journey so far. I shed a tear to
think that people were thinking of us.
aPril 27
Eric thanked us for looking after him when he fell through the ice and
seemed determined to make up for the delay, setting a faster-than-
normal pace, although he was understandably more cautious around
the water crossings. The sun shone today, in contrast to yesterday's
blizzard. We encountered a lot of powder snow and sometimes sank
up to 2 metres down into it.
The new food is a pleasant change from the stuff we've been eat-
ing for the past three weeks. I spent the day singing to myself to take
my mind off things.
By 4 pm the sky had turned dark, our shadows were no longer cast
upon the snow, and it was difficult to see a contrast between hills and
troughs. There came another dusting of snow followed by fierce winds.
