MURRAY: DAY 21, 13th MAY

DON'T FORGET TO MAKE A DONATION OUR CHOSEN CHARITY FOR EPIC GREENLAND, HELP FOR HEROES, AT www.justgiving.com/epicgreenland

Don’t think about time, don’t think about exhaustion, don’t think about pain. Bob’s Big Boy Burger, a sizeable mouth watering feast, only available at the one and only Kendricks restaurant in Dartmouth. I spent most of the day thinking about this almighty culinary experience - the hustle and bustle of the chaotic restaurant, the anticipation after ordering, the exciting first glimpses as the waiter brings it over, and then the blissful first bite. Hot digidy, that’s one tasty burger! Yes, the power of daydreaming is extraordinary but I sense all is about to become a reality as we now officially have under 100km to the finish. Our position is 67 01.222’N, 47 47.554’W, altitude 1606m.
I’m sure everyone at home (including myself) thought “oh, they’ve made it to the summit it should be easy, a case of sit on the sledge and slide all the way down hill and straight into the bar”. We couldn’t be more wrong. Since the summit we’ve had the coldest weather yet, below -30C, and as today proved we still have to fight for every inch. The day kicked off with some fresh snow and a whiteout. With lots of drag on the pulks and no horizon it gave the illusion that we were heading steeply uphill. We also weaved wildly the conditions made us take a bit of a zig zag route when it came to navigation. My heels had taken a literal beating on the previous day’s hard ice and had swollen and bruised and by early afternoon had become uncomfortable. So a combo of walking for 1hr, which is a tad more comfortable, and then skiing for 1hr was introduced. Our powers of British grit and determination and thoughts of the Bob’s Big Boy burger saw us complete our 30km quota.

A quick message from Niall to his girlfriend:
Congratulations Rachel on winning your canoe race, most impressive darling especially as you haven’t trained in two years.