Endurance

While we were in The Netherlands, a friend of ours kept sneaking away to his tent to read Endurance by Alfred Lansing. It tells the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton's team's expedition to Antarctica in the early 1900's. After our friend finished the book in just a few days, it passed on to his wife, to Michael, and now to me. I haven't gotten through it as quickly as the others, but I'm making good progress. Anyway, it is a book that puts lots of things into perspective. These men people who killed seals with their bare hands to survive and had to survive the long, dark polar winter out in the elements. It's pretty insane. And here I was, reading it on a warm hotel balcony overlooking the beach along the coast of France, or now back in the mild Sydney winter, from my bed with heated sheets.