Polar explorer

  

Not quite the Polar region this week but feels and looks like a hint of it. Enough to leave my print 5 minutes from home but not my print on the world in any way. Unlike the lady in an interview I was listening to on the radio. She is named Ann Daniels and is a "polar explorer"- I am unsure of the proper title. It wasn't something I had planned to listen to. As sometimes happens you have the radio or tv on on the background and get pulled in. Maybe it was my winter surroundings outside that helped but I could visualise some of the things she was saying clearly about her treks. I found it so fascination that I did plan to get her book as I thought she would have written but it appears there is not one. That is a pity. The interview segment was fairly short so it only touched the surface.

There are many things I found interesting but most fascinating of all was her solo expedition to the North Pole. The solitude and the elements are enough to be getting on with but what if one day you were out there alone and saw a polar bear? That got the hairs on the back of my neck standing. I just couldn't imagine it. That fear, alone. Yet she seemed calm and measured talking about it. As much as I'd like to think I would take the Brian Blessed approach of punching it on the nose (so he claims but if anyone would Brian would for sure) I think I'd be the fastest thing on ice instead. By the sounds of it she had learned enough to have the confidence to deal with the situation depending on what the bear done. That still takes some nerve. And I would assume from that would come a strength no one can teach. A calm inner strength. I really would love to read more.