Helen thinks she is going to make it
Published on 22.01.2012 - Helen’s Polar Challenge (Ski, Kite & Bike)
Skiing, biking, kiting...and sometimes falling down...
© Expedition website
With under 50 miles to go, Young BBC presenter Helen Skelton is confident for the rest of her trip. She is learning quickly and has well overcome the difficulties of such a trek.
20, 18, 23, 17 nautical miles done : not a bad average for a newcomer in the Antarctic.
Sometimes Helen and her companion use their kites, sometimes they just ski and of course, to justify their choice and the world première they are going to claim, sometimes they have to use the bikes. On a hard ground, the bikes seem to progress well : on 14 January for instance, they covered 10 nautical miles on a ten hour day. But there is one major problem with the bikes : of course they use much more energy when biking thant when sking or kiting. So after all, using the bikes is not such a brillant idea...
On 18 January, Helen wrote that she thinks they are going to make it. "When I started my polar challenge", she wrote, "I said I wanted to do it 20 days. Don't ask me where I got that from, but that was my target. I can honestly say I think we will make it. There's still a long way to go so I don't want to sound too confident. There's now just under 100 miles to go, but that's nothing to get giddy about. Until we reach about 60 miles out (the 89th degree) I can't get too excited. ..."
