polar regions

"The Worst Journey in the World" is one of the finest pieces of travel writing in English. Cherry-Garrard starts his story in June, 1910, as the _Terra Nova_ is leaving Cardiff, and ends it in early 1913, with Robert Scott and four of his men dead on the ice.

The book has two separate climaxes. The first is the "Winter Journey", which Cherry-Garrard took with Birdie Bowers and Bill Wilson, to recover Emperor penguin eggs, which were then (erroneously) thought to be scientifically important. Cherry-Garrard's prose is archetypically English, restrained and transparent; but his language almost fails him here. Only his understated style tells you how bad it must be for him to say of an Antarctic hurricane that hit them: "The earth was torn in pieces: the indescribably fury and roar of it all cannot be imagined." Later he makes it clear that for him there are no words that can convey it. This journey is, despite what comes later in the book, in some ways the most memorable chapter. It took five weeks, in Antarctic winter darkness. A temperature of -40 when they camped was a warm night for them. They lost their tent--certain death--blown away in a three-day hurricane, and miraculously found it again. It's no use; I can't give you an idea of it in this review; all I can do is tell you to read this chapter, if you won't read the whole book--you will never forget it.

The second climax is of course the story of Scott's expedition. Five men died; Edgar Evans of scurvy; Titus Oates, who not long before the end, with horribly gangrenous feet, walked into the blizzard to die in the hope that the party would be less burdened without him, and Scott, Wilson and Bowers, found dead in their tent by Cherry-Garrard and the others of the search party eight months later, only eleven miles from a depot that might have saved them. Cherry-Garrard went with them as far as the top of the Beardmore Glacier, and tells the story from that point on using various diaries and journals of the rest of the party. Some of the secondary stories are in themselves amazing feats of heroism and endurance, such as Crean, who walked thirty five miles non-stop alone in the terrible cold to bring medical help for Lieutenant Evans, dying of scurvy.

The one flaw is the maps; I wished for more of them, and more detail, though the two main journeys are covered well enough. I don't agree with those reviewers who found the book ponderous, though; it's detailed, but well-written. I found little I wanted to skip except the occasional list of stores.

If you want the most recent historiography, analyzing why Scott's expedition failed while Amundsen's succeeded with so little trouble, you may want to go elsewhere. Here you'll find the record of a contemporary, a polar expert, passionate and sincere. An unforgettable book.

Apsley Cherry-Garrard has truely given us an epic for exploration and adventure. This book conveys the horror, tragedy, and even ironic humor of Scott's ill-fated last expedition in an extremely eloquent manner.

Cherry-Garrard could not more fairly credit his companions. From the beginning, he is modest and places huge credit on his fellow explorers. In particular, he talks about Bowers, Wilson, and Scott with a sense of awe and immense respect.

The countless horrors of Scott's journey are described graphically, and it was easy to imagine anything from leaping from ice-flow to ice-flow for ours on the depot journey to stumbling upon the dead bodies of his friends. I enjoyed every minute of it.

The Worst Journey was incredibly inspiring. After reading the book, I felt like I could do anything, take on any challenge. The troubles they endured, the lifestyle they adapted to, is mind-numbing. It is difficult to imagine surviving such things.

In the "Winter Journey," one of the most difficult Journey's ever experienced by man, Cherry-Garrard and two other men struggle through the Antarctic Winter to Cape Crozier to obtain Penguin Eggs. They travel in pitch black, around giant crevasses, in frozen clothing, in -70 degree temperatures, and with sleeping bags that take hours to get into. This was the most intense, gripping reading I have ever done.

No matter who you are, you will like The Worst Journey In The World. Fantastic writing, gripping plot, and visual descriptions will keep you glued to the book. And when it's done, you will not want to stop reading.

As an American I don't even recall being taught anything at all about Scott and his men when I was in school.
I saw a article in a Life magazine special that got me curious and did a web search and discovered Cherry's excellent book.
Its my favorite adventure book of all time and the men were a different breed than most today. Bowers in particular sounded amazing, I think I'd rather have a conversation with him than Scott if I had the ability to go back in time and meet only one.
Sure there was the occasional dry spell but considering the age of the book I thought it was remarkably contemporary sounding.
Most amazing of all to me though was the fact that after reading the book at least 3 months ago I still think about it at least every other day!
Not only that it seems like Cherry, Scott, Bowers, Wilson and Evans were old friends of mine that in my opinion is a true testament to Cherry's writing.

I wish it had more pictures but I guess you can't have everything.

P.S. I can't help but looking at modern things and modern problems and thinking what would Bowers think of that or Cherry, I'm sure they'd be depressed at the overall state of morals around the world and Englands decline would suprise them but in particular I wonder what they would think of modern clothing and stuff like GPS.