The audience could guess the outcome already, after all, they knew the mystery’s solution, so reasoning backward wasn’t difficult.
On the fourth day of departure, Scott’s track tractors were already badly damaged. In the severe cold, the oiling system completely seized up. It was unrepairable and unable to be refueled, turning the tractors into heaps of scrap metal.
Subsequently, the supplies from the tractor were transferred to the backs of the Siberian ponies.
In the extreme cold, the Siberian ponies’ poor resistance to cold struggled to adapt to the harsh conditions of the Antarctic plateau. Even with sufficient food and drinking water, their strength was insufficient to cope with the continuous low temperatures and the high loads they had to carry.
One by one, the Siberian ponies collapsed. With no other options, the members of Scott’s expedition were forced to drag the supplies themselves, struggling forward through the blizzard-covered ice fields.
Meanwhile, Amundsen’s expedition team, who had departed from Whale Bay two months after Scott, had already far surpassed them, and they were advancing towards the South Pole at a speed that the former could hardly imagine.
[Damn, there’s such detail.]
[I had only heard about it before, never realized it was so complex.]
The audience listening to this already had a foreboding feeling.
Bi Fang tugged at Goudan, who was trying to jump out, and continued to speak along his train of thought.
Nature treated everyone equally; the challenges and hardships faced by Amundsen’s expedition team were not much less than those faced by Scott’s team.
Frostbitten skin and feet, diminishing supplies, and the polar reflection of sunlight off the snow even made it impossible to open one’s eyes during the journey.
These were difficulties Bi Fang had encountered himself, but because he took better protective measures, besides long-term fasting that caused physical weakness, he didn’t suffer too much damage.
However, it was different for Amundsen a hundred years ago. Their less advanced production capabilities meant less advanced protective measures.
And though they were called adventurers, in terms of the technological level at the time, most of it was still empirical. In terms of survival skills, they were far inferior to Bi Fang.
But the cold resistance and endurance of the Eskimo dogs ensured that Amundsen’s daily travels could continue, and the team still maintained a high speed of 30 kilometers a day without slowing down.
For the first half of the roughly 700 kilometers, Amundsen’s team wore Eskimo fur coats and advanced using dog sleds and skis.
The latter part of the journey was mainly ascending and crossing ridges. Despite encountering numerous mountains, valleys, and crevasses, the team still did not face fatal obstacles due to thorough preparation and the abilities of the Eskimo dogs.
[Impressive.]
[The Paw Patrol did a great job!]
[I didn’t see that coming, my Erha only knows how to wreck the house]
[An Erha that doesn’t wreck the house is not a good Erha]
After nearly two months of marching across the ice fields, the weather turned foul again, and a blizzard blew for five days and nights. To get to the South Pole first, Amundsen continued to move forward, carrying his skis and guiding the dog sleds.
When Amundsen was only 25 kilometers from the Pole, Scott’s team had already been struck by a combination of foul weather and inadequate preparations.
All of their Siberian ponies had frozen to death in the bitter cold.
With the tractors broken down and the ponies dead, Scott’s team had lost all forms of transportation.
Dragging supplies non-stop in the extreme cold had caused their feet to become frostbitten, and their faces were covered in frostbite, a stabbing pain with the slightest touch.
Under such circumstances, defeat was certain.
Bi Fang patted the dog head of Fugui, feeling the warm temperature through the fur transfer into his palm.
Previously, the audience only knew about a rough outcome but had no idea about the details of the adventure. Now, after listening to Bi Fang’s more detailed recap, they were quite emotional.
[Awesome, this is what an explorer is really about]
[A spirit worth studying]
Polar expeditions are like that, often leaving a big pit where nobody pays attention.
One would have turned into an icicle a long time ago if they thought they could ignore the natural environment and carelessly mess around just because they have good equipment.
"Actually, before coming here, the captain of the cruise ship told me an interesting story that happened not long ago, just last year."
Bi Fang remembered some fresh stories the old captain had shared with him during their conversation.
"Two-thirds of the Arctic Ocean is covered with ice and snow that does not melt all year round. For tourists who come here, it naturally feels novel and fun. But for the crew, who often have lived on a ship for a long time, the scenery they see every day is the same."
"Apart from the ice layer, there’s only ice. Wherever the ship goes, there’s a vast expanse of whiteness, and the landscape is so monotonous that people grow tired of looking at it. The only people they can talk to are a few familiar faces, so the extremely bored crew members can only stare at the ice and daydream in their idle time."
"As a result, while one crew member was gazing into the distance again, he suddenly saw something move. At first, he thought he’d encountered a polar bear, which is common enough, so he didn’t pay much attention. But as the ship approached, he realized that it was much smaller than a polar bear."
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"Eventually, after getting the binoculars, he discovered that it was actually a dog."
The crew members at the time couldn’t believe their eyes, but upon closer inspection, even though its fur almost blended into the background, it was indeed a dog!
That lonely dog wandered on the bumpy ice surface, stopping now and then, and unconsciously wagging its tail as it came under the cruise ship, looking both eager to approach and a little fearful.
"At that time, the captain ordered the boarding ladder to be lowered and used food as bait. The dog immediately came aboard, and later, the crew recorded a video of the dog, trying to see if any locals recognized her. They actually found the original owner."
[Damn, can I also pick up a dog if I go to the Arctic now?]
[Is it like an Arctic adoption center?]
[Do these three dogs have owners too?]
"Perhaps," Bi Fang said noncommittally.
Even large sheep farmers lose a number of sheep that sneak away every year, not to mention dogs.
But seeing the way the three dogs approached willingly, Bi Fang suspected that they might not have run away on their own initiative.
Just as he had initially told the audience, even in modern times, there were instances of Inuit people being found frozen to death inside their homes.
Just as there are still people living in primeval forests today, some Inuit people have not been able to integrate into modern life and still maintain their original way of living. Without enough food stored, they can face life-threatening risks.
Even those who have adapted still need to save enough money to survive.
Thanks to some people, Inuits entering modern society no longer needed to store large amounts of food. Instead, they converted their reserves into money. They made money through legal hunting qualifications for polar bears and other animals, selling fur, and accruing enough funds to support the purchase of supplies when the supply ships arrived in winter.
If there’s not enough food, one would starve to death.
And if there’s not enough money, one would still starve to death.
There seems to be no fundamental difference between the two, and the latter is even more stark. Your next journey awaits at Freewebnovel