Every Step - Alone in Antarctica: The First Woman to Ski Solo Across the Southern Ice - page 5

sadness. Or perhaps it was because a part of me knew that
it wouldn't be long before I was back in Antarctica, even
though I had no idea at the time how or why I would return. I
remember looking into the hard black surface of the Southern
Ocean, trying to imagine what my plan would be when I got
home. I attempted to picture myself in all sorts of employment
but somehow I just couldn't envisage fitting in to any one
profession. I assumed that the answer would emerge in time
- but it turned out that my inability to see myself with a job
was prophetic. To date, my position at Rothera remains the
closest I've ever come to having conventional employment. On
my return I worked in London briefly, organising expeditions
for young people, but I only lasted a matter of months before
resigning. I knew instinctively that I didn't belong in an office.
Instead, I began to organise expeditions of my own to the
polar regions, putting together interesting teams to go to
isolated places, but it was to be six years before I found a way
back to Antarctica. In 2009 I trained and led an unconventional
team of novice explorers with the aim of skiing together
to the South Pole. The eight-woman team was from Brunei
Darussalam, Cyprus, Ghana, India, Jamaica, New Zealand,
Singapore and the UK. Most of the women had never spent a
night in a tent, put on a pair of skis or experienced sub-zero
temperatures before joining the expedition. However, despite
the physical challenge of the environment and the human
challenge of working together as a group, we skied more than
900 kilometres from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole in
thirty-eight days. This was the first time I'd had an opportunity
to reach the South Pole and I couldn't have wished for a better
way to arrive, at the head of the largest and most international
team of women ever to ski to ninety degrees south.