Life Raft - Alone in Antarctica: The First Woman to Ski Solo Across the Southern Ice - page 106

memorable scenes of fortitude and stoicism that it has almost
taken on the cadence of a parable. But I have come to realise
that it is a history that has been streamlined with the telling
through the generations. The individual episodes of adventure
that make up the story are like pebbles on a beach that start
life as boulders of irregular and complex form but over time
are smoothed and simplified until they become oval stones that
fit perfectly in the hand. Their new shape is pleasing and easy
to handle, yet they have lost something in the process.
Like countless others, as a child I tried to imagine the hardship
experienced by Scott and his men and marvelled at the heroic
endurance recorded in journals and accounts but ultimately,
true empathy was impossible. Scott and his expedition were men
of a foreign age with attitudes that were largely unrecognisable
to me at the opposite end of the twentieth century. I admired
their actions but felt distinctly removed from them as people.
It's impossible to say what impact the story of Scott may have
had on my choices and decisions in life, any more than it is
possible to isolate the precise legacy of Enid Blyton's Famous
Five books that I devoured greedily as a child or the influence
of watching intrepid BBC TV presenters pluckily tackling
adventurous stunts on Blue Peter . I can't claim to feel a direct
debt of inspiration to Scott.
I hope that, were he able to witness some of the polar journeys
taking place today, Scott might recognise the same spirit of
adventure alive and well but I doubt he, nor any man of his day,
would have been able to conceive that a woman would have any
interest whatsoever in travelling to Antarctica herself, much less
ski across it. They are heroes to me, but not role models.
What I can credit the stories of Scott for is my first
introduction to a place that has inspired me for as long as I can