Getting used to pulling my sledge.

At the moment it’s about minus 40 but it’s really sunny, the sky is very blue and you can see for miles. We flew from Union Glacier to about 98 miles from the South Pole (Sunday) and the plane took over ten attempts to land and we all felt sick. The food is not very nice. This morning I had custard for breakfast but it had yellow lumps in it like scrambled eggs. Today we skied for about five hours and had four munchy stops. We have to drink about five litres of liquid a day. I had a lot of deep heat on my neck because it’s been sore from pulling my sledge. I’ve been doing stretches in the tent to try to loosen my back. I haven’t done any homework yet, I attempted to at Union Glacier but it didn’t really work! Today it was a lot colder but in the tent it’s fine. I’m sleeping better than I was but I wake up because of the cold. During the day my face is completely covered with a balaclava that looks like a gas mask. At night I put Vaseline on my face.

Thanks to everybody for my lovely messages, they really cheer me up. Happy Birthday to Georgie, I'll make you some brownies when I get back.

Dad said: 'We went out for three hours on the first day, four hours the second day and five hours today so we’re gradually building up….we walked 5.7 nautical miles yesterday.  It’s minus 35 with 10 knot winds so minus 45”