The Unlimited Child South Pole Expedition Update - 17 January 2011

 

MAKING GOOD GROUND
The Unlimited Child South Pole Expedition team will set out on the second day of their 111km journey to the South Pole today (17 January) exactly 100 years to the day that captain Robert Scott reached the South Pole.
The six-man team and their polar guide took their first steps on this epic journey from 89 degrees south in chilling conditions and made good ground on day one in spite of temperatures of 29 degrees below freezing. They completed 14km in 7.5 hours averaging less than two kilometres an hour while hauling a 40kg sled.
19-year-old Pietermaritzburg teenager Nzuzo Mnikathi, the youngest member of the team discovered that he has two frostnipped fingers on his left hand, the first stage of frostbite.
The team’s doctor, Pete Berning, will be keeping a watchful eye going forward to ensure that the frostnip does not turn into frostbite and hamper his effort to set a world record as the youngest black person ever to walk to the South Pole. He has dedicated his record-breaking challenge to The Unlimited Child, an initiative that targets early childhood development.
The Unlimited Child South Pole expedition team - Zack Buchan, Dave Pritt (Expedition co-ordinator), Dr Pete Berning, Barney Buchan, Iain Buchan (founder of The Unlimited Child) and Nzuzo Mnikathi (ambassador for The Unlimited Child) - reports that the landscape is beautiful, but absolutely desolate with just ice and snow as far as the eye can see with the sun set at 90 degrees parallel to the landscape.
You can follow Nzuzo and The Unlimited Child Expedition to the South Pole on www.theunlimitedchild.co.za in their efforts to reach the South Pole by Tuesday, 24 January.