Position: Lat: 85.266 South Long: 86.25 West

Miles covered: 42

Total miles covered: 339

Air temperature:

Conditions: Good, little wind and plenty of sunshine

The team's general situation is still extremely good with everyone in good health and good humour. On Thursday and Friday of last week they covered 27 miles which brought their position to Lat: 84.47 South/Long: 84.50 West on Christmas morning.

On Christmas Day they covered 13 miles and passed the halfway mark! The Thiel Mountains are now clearly in view. There was very little wind and they had a good day, with lots of calls to their families.

Boxing Day saw lovely sunny weather and they had another good day, travelling 14 miles.

Today, 27th December, they covered 15 miles! This is their best day on record. They started off with lousy visibility but conditions brightened up at the end. They really feel elated with their progress.

They are now 284 miles from the South Pole.

Disappointingly the promised article in the Mail on Sunday failed to materialise this week; however, they managed to speak to their Patron, HRH The Prince of Wales, on Christmas Eve - he was very excited and spent 10 minutes talking to each of them. They also talked to the Radio 4 - Today programme and this should have gone out sometime
today (Monday).

They are preparing their schedule to accommodate the ITN coverage of the Millennium on Friday. It is currently planned to have a live interview at about 09:55GMT and then another at about lunchtime - look out for any updates on this plan nearer the time.

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