Arctic Update–Dominick Still Missing, Ben And Wave Inching (And I Mean Inching) North: The helicopter search for Dominick found no sign of a living, breathing French-born Finnish Arctic explorer. There’s not much else to do, except hope she miraculously turns up. Here’s a measure of how hard things are on the ice. Ben Saunders has been at it more than two weeks, and he has covered just 65.6 nautical miles. And he needs to trek a total of–wait for it–842 to get to Canada. By my estimate he should be there by, oh, next Christmas. Wave Vidmar isn’t doing any better, except for the fact that he’s only going halfway, which is to say he’s stopping at the North Pole. Meanwhile, want to know what keeps Ben fueled up and crawling six miles a day? Here’s his description:

“On a practical note, apparently a few people have asked what I’m eating. Lots is the short answer. Just under 6,000 calories per day, which I’m sure would normally be enough to sustain a champion sumo wrestler. Up here, I’m still losing weight.

Breakfast is my own secret recipe high-calorie muesli (a bit too sweet, actually) washed down with a protein shake, a handful of vitamin pills and half a litre of energy drink.

I don’t have lunch, but eat/drink every hour I’m on the move – hot energy drink and some custom made energy bars from Science in Sport (they even say ‘Ben’s bars’ on the wrapper!)

In the evening, some Green & Black’s chocolate as a bit of a treat and then the highlight of the day – one of my Norwegian freeze-dried evening meals (courtesy of Expeditionfoods.com). Cod and potato casserole is my current favourite, but I’m slightly worries the fishy aroma wafting from my tent will have the bears’ mouths watering!!”

Cod and potato casserole? Well, there’s no doubt these guys are a bit different…



Bart?: “Oh man, I’m hallucinating. Stay away from me, kid, unless you’ve got a case of Duff beer stashed somewhere.”

(Image: ExplorersWeb)

Leave a comment