Broadcast live to the web from a phone call

http://www.justgiving.com/Felicity-Aston Well today is the 17th of January it is exactly a hundred years after Captain Scott reached the South Pole - unfortunately over a month after Amundsen has already beaten him to it but I've been thinking about Scott and his men and the story all day as I've been skiing along. Scott is not really someone that people sympathize usually with or not sympathize but identify I guess, because they were all from a totally different age. I mean I can't imagine what the response would be if you told him for example 'oh there's a woman who is going to stki across Antarctica.' That idea would have been totally inconceivable to him that a woman would do that and yet his story i find is as captivating as anybody else and that the story I heard of as a child, I guess is where I first got this idea, that Antarctica was somewhere where you came to prove yourself and put yourself against nature - that sort of thing. A place where heroes were made. And I do think that Scott is a hero, but I think it's a real shame that he's been pulled apart in recent years. As a leader of teams myself in the past, I know how difficult it is to read people. And I think perhaps the greatest tribute you can be given as a leader is though the comments and the loyalty of the people in your teams. If you read the things that were written about Scott then, both before and after his death it is clear that they would have followed him anywhere, and they have a lot of respect and admiration for him. I think that should carry perhaps more weight than the analysis of the story when we know the outcome and that can't but colour our judgement, I think, the fact that we knew what the eventual outcome was. But the story of Scott is ultimately just a tragic human story where 5 people lost their lives - but they weren't the last people to die in Antarctica unfortunately. I'm an ambassador of the British Antarctic Monument Trust which is raising money for a memorial to the 28 men and 1 woman who died in the British Antarctic Territories. If you'd like to find out more about that - or even perhaps make a donation towards the momument being planned you can find the link on my website (www.felicityaston.co.uk) and read some more about all the people who have tragically lost their lives in Antarctica as well as the Scott party. So, I guess abit of a sad day really - and I just feel very fortunate that unlike Scott I have a plan B, I have a satellite phone and I can ring for help if things got really really bad. But, this close to the end of my journey, I thoroughly hope that I won't have to do that at this stage and that the only phonecall I'll be making will be for the planes to come and pick me up and take me back to base camp - sooner rather than later I hope, but we shall see. Plodding on everyday and making progress.