Adventures at Both Poles by Noel Barber

So we're at 12300 feet in the Himalayas and .... it starts to rain. We're in the tents. Apart from a friend's Tiger Balm - there really isn't much else protecting you from the smelly socks and shoes and unemptied stomachs. You can't really do much about the ears though - eyes you can still keep shut but ears... I'll never forget an excessively chatty bunch of cousins who just went on and on and on...

We have to spend at least five days there because that camp is near the glacier where we'll be doing our training. Thanks to global warming, it takes us a good 1 1/2 hours every day trekking to the glacier. Needless to say, I don't think I'll be buying a chip packet ever again.

You can only talk to so many people. With this philosophy in mind, NIM has set up a small library at the camp where you can go and check out a book if you like. So me and a friend went there and sorted through the collection.

I picked up this book called "Adventures at Both Poles" by Noel Barber. It was a non-fiction book - based on the trips Noel Barber, a journalist, made to the Arctic and Antarctic, where he stayed at various Military camps. There was an interesting piece about an underground city made by the Americans in Greenland; also another about how there are no animals in the Antarctic - they're all in the Arctic.... He also puts up a Union Jack at the South Pole --- all quite interesting.

I came across the concept of "white out" for the first time in this book - even before NIM told us about it. I read a little about him on the Internet and found out that he reported for the Daily Mail and has even written a few fiction books. He even reported on the Hungarian Revolution - I didn't even know there was one!!

I liked his writing style - it was clear, lucid and very honest.