{"id":410,"date":"2008-06-25T17:02:21","date_gmt":"2008-06-25T17:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.doctorross.co.za\/?p=410"},"modified":"2008-07-05T17:03:39","modified_gmt":"2008-07-05T17:03:39","slug":"when-the-going-gets-tough-the-tough-go-camping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/?p=410","title":{"rendered":"When the going gets tough, the tough go camping"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s the middle of winter in Antarctica, the temperature has just dropped below -40\u00c2\u00b0C, and it&#8217;s pitch dark outside.\u00c2\u00a0 What do you do?\u00c2\u00a0 Well, you pitch your tent, of course!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/tentbeforestorm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-414\" title=\"tentbeforestorm\" src=\"http:\/\/www.doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/tentbeforestorm.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/tentbeforestorm.jpg 800w, https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/tentbeforestorm-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Not wanting to let the opportunity to emulate the great explorers slip by, Daleen, Morgan and I spent the night camping near the base.\u00c2\u00a0 To add to the ambience, I took a copy of Aspley Cherry-Garrard&#8217;s &#8220;The Worst Journey in the World (an epic tale of a winter sledging journey in Antarctica alomst 100 years ago) and read passages aloud to the amusement of the others.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/readingcherry-garrard.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-413\" title=\"readingcherry-garrard\" src=\"http:\/\/www.doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/readingcherry-garrard-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/readingcherry-garrard-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/readingcherry-garrard.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Despite having three people in a two-man expedition tent, the cold soon invaded everything, and although we were warm in double down sleeping-bags the temperature in the tent dropped to -32\u00c2\u00b0C, which left every surface covered in ice crystals.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/icecrystalsintent.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-412\" title=\"icecrystalsintent\" src=\"http:\/\/www.doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/icecrystalsintent-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/icecrystalsintent-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/icecrystalsintent.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Although there was initially no wind, by the next day a storm was moving in and the wind rapidly picked up to 60 knots (110km\/h), buffeting the tent continuously and eunsuring a constant fine rain of ice.\u00c2\u00a0 Eventually, it was not the weather but empty stomachs and full bladders forced us back to the base, leaving the tent pegged down and snow-picketed but at the mercy of the elements.\u00c2\u00a0 The shape was distorting in the wind,but she stood firm.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/tentingale.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-415\" title=\"tentingale\" src=\"http:\/\/www.doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/tentingale.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/tentingale.jpg 800w, https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/tentingale-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s the middle of winter in Antarctica, the temperature has just dropped below -40\u00c2\u00b0C, and it&#8217;s pitch dark outside.\u00c2\u00a0 What do you do?\u00c2\u00a0 Well, you pitch your tent, of course! Not wanting to let the opportunity to emulate the great explorers slip by, Daleen, Morgan and I spent the night camping near the base.\u00c2\u00a0 To [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antarctica","category-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doctorross.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}