South African snow adventurer Correne Erasmus-Coetzer has been forced to abandon her dream of becoming the first African woman to cross the icy continent of Greenland on foot. The dream came to an end this week when the expedition of nine men and women came up against a ferocious wind and snow storm, and rapidly dwindling food supplies, as they approached the quarter-way mark of their 550km slog from the east to west coast of Greenland, across the Arctic Circle.
| I'd have given up my dream of slogging across the continent of Greenland when I discovered it's not a continent, merely an island that looks bigger than it is on Mercator projection maps. |
Erasmus-Coetzer was hoping to create awareness about global warming and raise money for the Durban-based Wilderness Leadership School.
| But the weather had a chilling effect on her ambitions... |
In a satellite phone message posted on her on expedition website, a disappointed Coetzer said the future of the journey had been in the balance for several days, but a decision was taken on Wednesday to turn back.
| "Captain! We must turn around and go back! We will freeze! If we don't freeze we will fall off the edge of the world!" |
Erasmus-Coetzer said the conditions in Greenland were worse than anything she had experienced during previous expeditions to the North and the South Poles.
| "It's true. Y'see, global warming drops the temperature of the ocean's currents. The heat shrinks continents to the size of islands that look bigger than they are on Mercator projections. When things compress like that, their temperatures get lowered. That's why it's so cold in Greenland: Global Warming®!" |
It was a bit like "walking in milk" she said, explaining that the sky was full of snow and this made it impossible to distinguish between the horizon and the sky.
| Good Gawd! Snowstorms in Greenland! We're doomed! The entire planet's turning into a griddle! |
For nearly three days the expedition had been snowed-in by icy, gale-force winds which tore against their tents.
"What's today's weather, Weatherman Bill?"
"Icy, gale-force winds again, I'm afraid!" |
There was no sun to charge her solar-powered phone and her sleeping bag was sopping wet. The clincher was the fact that insurance cover for two members of the party would expire if the journey was delayed, and it would have become too expensive to evacuate them if things went wrong.
| If we had Hillarycare that wouldn't happen, of course. |
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