ACROSS SOUTH GEORGIA The sun rose in the sky with every appearance of a fine day, and we grew warmer as we toiled through the soft snow.

Ahead of us lay the ridges and spurs of a range of mountains, the transverse range that we had noticed from the bay.

We were travelling over a gently rising plateau, and at the end of an hour we found ourselves growing uncomfortably hot.

Years before, on an earlier expedition, I had declared that I would never again growl at the heat of the sun, and my resolution had been strengthened during the boat journey.

I called it to mind as the sun beat fiercely on the blinding white snow-slope.
After passing an area of crevasses we paused for our first meal.