Book description
'The cracked and fissured ice-pack offers no comfortable reassurance -
no glimmer of any reward to the traveller who has made his way to the
top of the world. The Arctic Ocean, known to the Victorians as the Sea
of Ancient Ice, stares balefully back as we descend towards it,
reflecting nothing but the question: Why?' Michael Palin's adventure
begins when he is enrolled in the Royal and Ancient Polar Bear
Society... Travelling by train, truck, raft, Ski-Doo, barge, balloon and
bicycle, Michael Palin experiences every extreme the world has to offer.
Braving the cold grip of the Arctic Circle, and the swirling snowstorms
of Spitsbergen, Palin has to cope with friendly locals, occasional
gunfire and his own unruly digestive system before he can finally stand
in Scott's shoes at the South Pole, in the Land of the Midnight Sun.
