The Worst Journey in the World eBook

Apsley Cherry-Garrard
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 876 pages of information about The Worst Journey in the World.

The Worst Journey in the World eBook

Apsley Cherry-Garrard
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 876 pages of information about The Worst Journey in the World.

I confess I had my misgivings.  I had never driven one dog, let alone a team of them; I knew nothing of navigation; and One Ton was a hundred and thirty miles away, out in the middle of the Barrier and away from landmarks.  And so as we pushed our way out through the wind and drift that night I felt there was a good deal to be hoped for, rather than to be expected.  But we got along very well, Dimitri driving his team in front, as he did most of this journey, and picking up marks very helpfully with his sharp eyes.  In the low temperatures we met, the glasses which I must wear are almost impossible, because of fogging.  We took three boxes of dog-biscuit from Safety Camp and another three boxes from a point sixteen miles from Hut Point.  Here we rested the dogs for a few hours, and started again at 6 P.M.  All day the light was appalling, and the wind strong, but to my great relief we found Corner Camp after four hours’ more travelling, the flag showing plainly, though the cairn itself was invisible when a hundred yards away.  This was the last place where there was any dog-food on the route, and the dogs got a good feed after doing thirty-four miles (statute) for the day’s run.  This was more than we had hoped:  the only disquieting fact was that both the sledge-meters which we had were working wrong:  the better of the two seemed however to be marking the total mileage fairly correctly at present, though the hands which indicated more detailed information were quite at sea.  We had no minimum thermometer, but the present temperature was -4 deg..

February 27. Mount Terror has proved our friend to-day, for the slope just above the Knoll has remained clear when everything else was covered, and we have steered by that—­behind us.  It seemed, when we started in low drift, that we should pick up nothing, but by good luck, or good I don’t know what, we have got everything:  first the motor, then pony walls at 10 miles, where we stopped and had a cup of tea.  I wanted to do 15 miles, but we have done 181/2 miles on the best running surface I have ever seen.  After lunch we got a cairn which we could not see twenty yards away after we had reached it, but which we could see for a long way on the southern horizon, against a thin strip of blue sky.  We camped just in time to get the tent pitched before a line of drift we saw coming out of the sky hit us.  It is now blowing a mild blizzard and drifting.  Forty-eight miles in two days is more than I expected:  may our luck continue.  Dogs pulling very fit and not done up.

February 28. I had my first upset just after starting, the sledge capsizing on a great sastrugus like the Ramp.  Dimitri was a long way ahead and all behind was very thick.  I had to unload the sledge for I could not right it alone.  Just as I righted it the team took charge.  I missed the driving-stick but got on to the sledge with no hope of stopping them, and I was carried a mile to the south, leaving four boxes of dog-food, the weekly

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The Worst Journey in the World from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.