South 88 degrees and 26 minutes - Day 51

Today is a special day, we have passed the latitude South 88 Degrees 26 minutes, this is known as Shackleton's 'Furthest South', meaning the furthest south that he reached in 1909, before wisely turning back to save both his life and those of his men. He could have made it to the Pole and would have bathed in the glory for being the first man to have reached it, but it is very unlikely he would have made it home alive as they were very low on provisions....so he wouldn't have enjoyed much glory!

Whilst we are on a different line of longitude (West 81 degrees ), it is still significant for our 'Beyond Endurance' expedition, that celebrates so much of Shackleton's life, to have crossed this threshold.

Beyond endurance (BE) has several meanings, not only does Endurance refer to Shackleton's ship the 'Endurance' that was encased in pack ice and then sank in the Weddell sea, giving rise to one of the most famous stories of human survival, but also to our stories, mine and Shaun's. BE is Pat Falvey's brain child and for half the team, Pat and Clare; this is their dream to celebrate the lives of the sung and unsung Irish Polar heroes (Shackleton, Tom Crean etc.) by walking to the South Pole. For me and Shaun, we are average Joe's, have both been sat at desks, grinding away in corporatedom for years. We are ordinary people with no particular experience of enduring these environments, and here we are only a 160km from the South Pole....without sounding corny I do feel that I have gone beyond my level of endurance...this has been incredibly difficult but rewarding, in fact the last 10 days have been hell (albeit a cold one) on Earth.

When I'm having a down or low spell, quite a few at the moment! I often think if the polar pioneers who trod the ice where I do now, they suffered the same as I do, a hundred years before me, but with far more basic equipment and clothing, but the snow and the cold is the same. I am proud to be part of an expedition that celebrates the endeavors of Irish polar heroes and I'm proud of my Irish heritage and consider my self very fortunate to have been invited to join this team of 3 fantastic people.

I can't believe I only met them 4.5 months ago in August while crossing Greenland, they have been training together for this for nearly 2 years, at first I felt like an imposter, an intruder to their dreams - not anymore, we have been through so much now.

As I lie in my sleeping bag mentally preparing for the onslaught of the next day, I look up at all the graffiti we have scrawled over the inside of the tent, mainly our position each day, how far we've come and how far we have left to go. But every now and again there is a motivating quote we've written, my favorite is right by my head and its the last this I see at night and the first in the morning. It's a quote from Robert Browning, Shackleton's favorite poet, it reads; "for sudden the worst becomes the best, for the brave." It was often quoted to inspire his men in tough times - it reminds me to stay focussed, strong and to get the job done.

My apologies, a bit of a muddled rant, I'm pretty shattered - 7 more days to go!