The Worst Journey in the World: Antarctic, 1910-1913
nside was pandemonium. Most men had gone to bed, and I have a blurred
memory of men in pyjamas and dressing-gowns getting hold of me and
trying to get the chunks of armour which were my clothes to leave my body.
Finally they cut them off and threw them into an angular heap at the foot
of my bunk. Next morning they were a sodden mass weighing 24 lbs. Bread
and jam, and cocoa; showers of questions; "You know this is the hardest
journey ever made," from Scott; a broken record of George Robey on the
gramophone which started us laughing until in our weak state we found it
difficult to stop. I have no doubt that I had not stood the journey as well as
Wilson: my jaw had dropped when I came in, so they tell me. Then into my
warm blanket bag, and I managed to keep awake just long enough to think
that Paradise must feel something like this.
We slept ten thousand thousand years, were wakened to find everybody at
breakfast, and passed a wonderful day, lazying about, half asleep and wholly
happy, listening to the news and answering questions. "We are looked upon
as beings who have come from another world. This afternoon I had a shave
3 APSLEY CHERRY-GARRARD
after soaking my face in a hot sponge, and then a bath. Lashly had already
cut my hair. Bill looks very thin and we are all very blear-eyed from want of
sleep. I have not much appetite, my mouth is very dry and throat sore with
a troublesome hacking cough which I have had all the journey. My taste is
gone. We are getting badly spoiled, but our beds are the height of all our
pleasures." 168]
But this did not last long:
"Another very happy day doing nothing. After falling asleep two or three
times I went to bed, read Kim, and slept. About two hours after each meal
we all want another, and after a tremendous supper last night we had an-
other meal before turning in. I have my taste back but all our fingers are im-
possible, they might be so many pieces of lead except for the pins and needles
feeling in them which we have also got in our feet. My toes are very bulbous
and some toe-nails are coming off. My left heel is one big burst blister. Go-
ing straight out of a warm bed into a strong wind outside nearly bowled me
over. I felt quite faint, and pulled myself together thinking it was all nerves:
but it began to come on again and I had to make for the hut as quickly as
possible. Birdie is now full of schemes for doing the trip again next year. Bill
says it is too great a risk in the darkness, and he will not consider it, though
he thinks that to go in August might be possible." 169]
And again a day or two later:
"I came in covered with a red rash which is rather ticklish. My ankles and
knees are a bit puffy, but my feet are not so painful as Bill's and Birdie's.
Hands itch a bit. We must be very weak and worn out, though I think Birdie
is the strongest of us. He seems to be picking up very quickly. Bill is still
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