Mike’s Blog 05.05.2011

Another good day for Mike and the Young Explorers on the Magnetic North Pole trek.

"We advanced 15 kms today which is pretty good considering the first two hours was in thick pack ice. The Young Explorers sleds are laden with about 45kgs of material which is not too heavy but still quite enough when you are not used to it. Throughout the day the ice eventually flattened so we were able to gain more ground later on."

"The weather remains good with virtually no wind, light snow and white out conditions, which keeps the temperatures nice and warm at -10°c to -12°C." Not only does the weather remain good but so does the morale of the team.

"We celebrated Christopher's birthday in style this evening. The Young Explorers had prepared some balloons in the mess tent and gave him a practical gift – handwarmers!!! We ate together and discussed the day. Everybody is tired this evening and have gone to bed early. It's pretty normal to feel like this after the fourth day of hard exercise. They'll bounce back tomorrow."

"We saw a lot of seal holes today and also our first polar bear with a small cub! They were far away in the distance and ran the opposite way when we saw them. There's a chance we'll see more tomorrow as we are getting closer to open water."

Best regards from MIke and the team!