This has been a pretty overwhelming week for me. So many of you have emailed me with your support that I've let my macho façade slip on occasion and got a little emotional. It's been especially cool to see people getting in contact who don't know me from Adam. They read a blog that linked to another blog that linked to my site and just got what we're trying to do. One of the first to own a mile was Brad Smith, who wrote:
'I am a quiet man living in the suburbs of western Sydney, Australia. I have a severe vision disability and am profoundly deaf. So what you guys are doing is something I would love to dare, dream, and live.
On this note Ben, best of luck to you and your team. Just know that I will be with all you guys in spirit. Not just for one mile, but for every single shred of snow, every single blink of that magnificent vast expanse.'
Thanks Brad for making my day. Moral support is every bit as important as financial backing, and I know from experience that it's this kind of message that will keep Tony and I going when things get tough.
If you haven't done so yet, we'd love you to own a mile of the next expedition.
— Filed under SOUTH
Inspiration: the Fat Man Walking (across America!)
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I've been dropping hints about the next expedition for a while now. It's a project that has been nearly four years in the making, and it's going to be another year and a bit before we set out on what will undoubtedly be the biggest challenge of my entire life.
Here's the plan. The first return journey to the South Pole on foot and the longest unsupported polar journey in history. In October next year, Tony Haile and I will set out from Scott's hut, on the shores of McMurdo Sound on a 1,800-mile, four-month round trip, from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back. No dogs, no vehicles, no kites, no resupplies. We're calling it SOUTH.
The great Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen made the only return journey, using dogs, 93 years ago. His rival Captain Scott died on his return from the Pole just 11 miles from the relative safety of his largest depot. Since then every expedition has either been flown out from the Pole or used dogs, kites or vehicles. Many people have blamed Scott's failure on his reliance on human power, and many experts still believe an entirely human-powered journey of this magnitude to be impossible. We think otherwise.
Last year's expedition may have been solo, but it sometimes felt like I was sharing my tent with thousands – these are the people who shared our dreams, and these are the people whose flag we want to fly at the Pole. Our dream is to finance SOUTH from individual donations – we want this expedition to be owned by people who see the spirit and not just the commercial value of this endeavour. We want you to own a mile of the expedition.
I've never been much of a salesman, and I feel especially awkward writing this because essentially I'm offering you a slice of the biggest dream I've ever had. I hope you'll look beyond the ice and the cold and the machismo, and see this for what it really is: a story about daring to dream really big dreams, and being daft enough to open your heart and ask everyone else to join in and help out.
There's more at www.south.com.
— Filed under SOUTH
The BBC (and especially geek/reporter extraordinaire Jo Twist) has covered all the really important stuff.
So, all that's left for me to say is that you really ought to go out and buy Kate Walsh's new album. She played a few (wonderful) live acoustic sets at TED and I knew straight away that Beth Orton had been ousted from my number one songstress slot. Sublime.
— Filed under Miscellany
TED Global is, as I expected, proving a mind-blowing experience. This evening was no exception: crammed into the (sweltering) Sheldonion Theatre, we were treated to a semi-improvised, live twenty-minute performance by Talvin Singh.
Talvin is single-handedly responsible for fusing Punjabi bhangra music with the synthesised electronica that I grew up raving to in clubs, parties and heaving aircraft hangars. The spine-tingling, life-affirming, goosebumps bit came towards the end; a rich, flowing, drum 'n' bass bassline kicked in (utterly incongruous given the chandeliers, oil paintings and organ pipes in the background), Talvin's tabla playing reached a frenzied crescendo, and something posessed me to look up. Sat right at the back, his face partly in shadow, was Thomas Dolby, one of the first musicians to realise the power of electronic synthesizers, more than twenty years ago.
It's an incredible privilege to be sat here with people that are genuinely changing the world, and I'm thinking a lot about what my legacy will be. What can I change? What can I make better? What will I push forward in the 438,000 hours (or so) that I have left on this planet?
— Filed under Rumination
Nice. Just as George W Bush declares the US will 'not retreat in the face of terrorists', thousands of US military personnel are banned from travelling to London.
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I'm off to TED Global in a few hours time – I'll write a bit more when I get to Oxford…
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Oddly, it seems I'm now the no.1 search result for 'Nike sponsored athlete'. Quite probably the only time I'm going to beat Lance…
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