Science - in the News
Tuesday, 05 May 2009 @ 20:37 GMT
Three UK explorers surveying the Arctic ice were
down to rations of just 90g of food each per day until a resupply
flight reached them on Tuesday.
Bad weather had frustrated repeated attempts to land new food
stocks at the ice camp set up by Pen Hadow, Ann Daniels and Martin
Hartley.
The explorers, from the Catlin Arctic Survey, usually consume enough food to give them about 6,000 calories per day.
The cut in rations took them down to just 1,000 calories each.
In the last few days before the flight landed, the team
had gone without any hot food and were described as "hungry, lethargic,
and excruciatingly bored".
At one point, cameraman Martin Hartley said he was surviving on the
equivalent of three Mars bars - even less in the last few days - and
listed his rations:
"Today I've had a cup of porridge, three pork scratchings, a piece
of dried coconut and a finger of shortbread. I've got 12 raisins left
in my bag and nine pieces of pineapple, each the size of a little
finger."
