Tony Carnie
South African snow adventurer Correne Erasmus-Coetzer has been forced to abandon her dream of becoming the first African woman to cross the icy continent of Greenland on foot.
The dream came to an end this week when the expedition of nine men and women came up against a ferocious wind and snow storm, and rapidly dwindling food supplies, as they approached the quarter-way mark of their 550km slog from the east to west coast of Greenland, across the Arctic Circle.
Erasmus-Coetzer was hoping to create awareness about global warming and raise money for the Durban-based Wilderness Leadership School.
In a satellite phone message posted on her expedition website, a disappointed Coetzer said the future of the journey had been in the balance for several days, but a decision was taken on Wednesday to turn back.
Erasmus-Coetzer said the conditions in Greenland were worse than anything she had experienced during previous expeditions to the North and the South Poles.
It was a bit like "walking in milk" she said, explaining that the sky was full of snow and this made it impossible to distinguish between the horizon and the sky.
For nearly three days the expedition had been snowed-in by icy, gale-force winds which tore against their tents.
There was no sun to charge her solar-powered phone and her sleeping bag was sopping wet. The clincher was the fact that insurance cover for two members of the party would expire if the journey was delayed, and it would have become too expensive to evacuate them if things went wrong.
Wow!, this was a real quality post. In theory I'd like to write like this too - taking time and real effort to make a good article... but what can I say... I keep putting it off and never seem to get something done