Armed with little more than a small axe and an iron will, a team of British-Australian adventurers have recreated Sir Ernest Shackleton's epic voyage across the Antarctic Southern Ocean.
Expedition leader Tim Jarvis, Royal Marine Barry Gray and navigator Paul Larsen battled 140km/h winds, blizzards and numb limbs to reach the old whaling outpost of Stromness, on the island of South Georgia, on Sunday.
In doing so they risked permanent damage from frostbite, but gained new respect for Irish-born Shackleton, the legendary explorer who in 1916 led his own perilous expedition to the very end of the earth.
"Shackleton's motto was 'by endurance we conquer' and I think this was all about endurance," Jarvis said after reaching Stromness. "It was basically about deciding how much you're prepared to suffer."
Jarvis, Gray and Larsen were part of a six-strong group that left icebound Elephant Island, off continental Antarctica, on January 24. They sailed 800 nautical miles to South Georgia in a rickety wooden replica of the lifeboat Shackleton used 97 years ago.
