Beyond Endurance — or beyond a joke?

I HAD a hard time these past few weeks worrying — day in, day out — about our gallant Beyond Endurance team as they battled their way across the frozen Antarctic, dragging their meagre belongings behind them in the teeth of howling wind and suffering all manner of discomfort and danger.

Forgive my ignorance of these matters — but are there no polar bears in the south?

Your excellent regular reports told of the teams near exhaustion as they approached their destination and I began to fear they would never make it back through that bleak and hostile wilderness. Then the gloom lifted.

The expedition leader told us, by satellite phone no doubt (you were born too soon, Tom Crean!), that they expected a warm welcome when they reached the South Pole (apparently there are people living and working there) and hoped to get the next flight out.

Naturally, I asked myself if it’s possible to fly out, why not fly in? Then I began to reassess the entire adventure.

Later we were told that our heroes were never more than a phone call away from rescue.

Beyond Endurance? Beyond a joke, if you ask me.

Next time they should do something really useful like going on a Simon soup run or helping the Niall Mellon project in South Africa — it would involve travel an’ all and would help them get over themselves.

Dan Murphy

Old Church Road

Passage West

Co Cork