An Odyssey
Apsley's journey through the darkness of the stormy Antarctic winter to where the Emperor penguins stood with their eggs was one of the most moving journeys I have read about. Apsley tells the story with great humility and this endears him to the reader. This book would be worth buying simply for this story, but it also tells of Robert Falcon Scott's journey and the death of all of the party who made the final push to the pole. Apsley and the others who were not chosen to make the final push to the pole doggedly searched for their companions and friends and finally found them frozen. Apsley quotes Scott's journal detailing Scott's last moments and the fate of the others. This is harrowing, but inspiring reading. Apsley Cherry-Garrard is one of the more forgotten heros of Antarctic exploration. I use the word hero with trepidation, but it is apt in his case. He truly would lay down his life for his friends and he cared deeply for those he called friends.
Worst Journey - best book
Apsley Cherry-Garrard's amazing tale of life in the Antarctic as the youngest member of Scott's fatal expedition. I was gripped from the very first line of this book; "Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised." He describes wearing clothes for 6 months with no dirt building up on them, or it being 'more lonely than London' and later he talks of his later experiences in the Great War (1914-18) where the polar explorers felt, considering what they had been through, the trenches were a relatively comfortable alternative. In short Cherry-Garrard has a simple way with words that I loved.This Antartctic trip lasted some three years and ended with Scott's heroically-futile death - painfully close to supplies and help. Cherry-Garrard was one of those left at the base camp so he survived the trip - but don't think that his lot was much easier than those that struggled to the Pole. The book is as much about the Antarctic and the terrible hardships as about the people of the expedition. Cherry-Garrard's writing and his character seem to personify the stoic, good-humour of the men around him.
The book is very long and I have to admit that I needed extra maps to make sense of where they were - even though there are maps throughout the book. This is not a book, I think, for someone who is not interested in reading further about exploration in the Antarctic, but it makes an excellent start point to read others.
On a purely aesthetic note, the hard-cover version from Picador has the most wonderful cover and comes with a little ribbon to mark your place. It feels really lovely to read it.
One of the best Antarctic adventure tales
One of the members of Scott's last expedition to Antarctica was the author of this book, who at the time was one of the youngest members of the group. Cherry-Garrard recounts his personal adventures as part of the expedition, as well as the fate of the small group who trekked to the South Pole with Scott (they died on the return journey). However, Cherry-Garrard, with two other expedition members, made a journey that was far more harrowing than Scott's trek to the pole -- a journey of some weeks across the Antarctic ice shelf in winter! Walking in the near-total darkness, Cherry-Garrard's group man-hauled their heavy sledges, almost lost their tents in a gale(without which they would have perished), and endured extremes of temperature that not even Scott experienced -- all in pursuit of the rarest of prizes -- the eggs of an Emperor penguin (in order to study the animal's development). Unfortunately, in later years Cherry-Garrard would suffer from repeated nervous breakdowns, partly due to his war experiences and partly to his (misplaced) conviction that he might have been able to save Scott and his polar party. Cherry-Garrard was the last person to visit the farthest supply dump, called One-Ton Depot; Scott and his group would die a mere eight miles from this depot. However, at the time Cherry-Garrard visited the depot, Scott and his men were much farther away than this -- they also weren't expected to arrive back yet for some weeks. Although his expedition comrades in later years would try to make it clear to him that it would be absolutely impossible for him to have saved Scott, he was never entirely convinced. Of all the polar adventure books I have read, this will always stand out to me as one of the most thrilling.
Epic tales of survival and discovery in Antarctica
Apsley Cherry-Garrard recounts the heroic stuggle for survival during the exploration of Antarctica early in the 20th century. Much of the text was collected from the diaries of the explorers, and includes excerpts from Sir Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated journey to the Pole, and Cherry-Garrard's deep winter trek across the Ross Ice Shelf to obtain an emperor penguin's egg.
An incredible history of triumphs against relentlessly harsh conditions. It's enough to make even the most hardy armchair-explorer huddle closer to the fireplace
