BRANDO YELAVICH EXPLORER

Today it was whiteout conditions almost all day. It was looking like it would be a tough day walking and we would be lucky to reach our distance target. Thankfully, we caught up with the English team! This made things so much easier for us and the afternoon of walking was a breeze! I had noodles again for lunch, I’m so sick of noodles!!! (Ngaio loves noodles they are her FAVOURITE so I’ll have some making up to do for saying that). We walked until 11pm, had dinner and now in

We survived the most epic hurricane I have ever experienced...It was the only hurricane I have ever experienced but man it was full on. 137km per hour winds, zero visibility and snow that hits your face like a shards of glass. I found the storm pretty exciting as I waited for it to grow to its full force. The tent was flapping sooo much I wasn't sure it was going to stay in one piece, we eventually drifted off to the screaming wind. I woke up at 4am, the wind was deafening an

I woke up early this morning, the team was only walking until midday because of an anticipated storm. The updated forecast this morning said the incoming weather was a hurricane with wind gusts higher than I have ever experienced. We all wanted to make the most of our time before the storm so we began walking at 8am. We walked for 4 hours and covered 9km. During that time we spotted the British team (who shared their M&Ms with us) a few kms to our left. It looked like they we

Last nights sleep was like trying to sleep in a deep freezer, cold in an understatement. My breath had frozen to the outside of my sleeping bag and I had ice in my eye lashes. The morning routine was a challenge, my hands didn't want to move and it felt like I didn't even have fingers. I wore my face mask for the first time today, there was a tiny gap on my cheek leaving it exposed, the cold air hitting it felt like fire! To break up the day i decided to find out why my team

The storm woke both me and Keith up at about 5am. The tent had its pegs thrown out by the wind and the front was flapping like crazy. I opened up the door into the outer tent, it had a huge pile of snow that had covered our boots and cooker. I grabbed the spade and dashed out to put the pegs back but the wind was too strong and I couldn't get the tent to stay down. I was only outside for about 30 seconds, I couldn’t get an eye on the other two tents to see if they had blown a

I woke up to the tent flapping in the wind. It’s been so still for the entire trip until today. It was probably only blowing at 12-14km per hour but it took the wind chill down to about -35 degrees. After the daily 300g of oats with four dates I geared up and got myself out of the tent. My hands were intantly frozen as I rummaged through my sledge looking for my thick gloves. We left the camp spot at 9am on the dot, walking into the wind. The wind was freezing my mo with ice

Today was the first day where everything was flat, no more hills! We travelled about 20km today and made it to dog camp. It was a good day until I became sick. It feels like a tummy bug, nausea and vomiting. Dog camp is flat, theres nothing here just ice ice and more ice. The horizon is playing tricks on my mind, morphing the never ending white into hills and glaciers and houses. I was feeling so good before I got sick, its crazy how you take advantage of your body until it i

Incase you weren't aware, I'm currently on my way to Greenland! Thanks to the Antarctic Heritage Trust, myself and three others are attempting to cross the second largest polar ice cap in the world, in honour of Fridtjof Nansen, the fist person ever to complete this mission. We have been given a huge amount of gear from Kathmandu for our Greenland crossing. We will be wearing the new XT range and putting it through its paces. It is such a surreal feeling, packing thousands of

Gear list for Stewart island Bellow I have put together a gear list of the things I carried on my trip around Stewart Island I also decided to review some of the new products I got from Kathmandu. Tent Waterproof jacket Pack 75L and pack liner Freeze-dried food Solar light Knife x1 Merino shirts x2 Top and bottom merino thermals Cooker (I carry a solid fuel burner for trips over 15 days) x2 GoPro Hero5 (filming my experiences is very important) x3 Battery packs x3 Solar panel

The first day of walking. I made my way down to the beach where I had organized for the kids from the local school here in Oban to meet me, the whole school came down and were waiting for me to leave.It was such a great feeling knowing I was going to be able to share this special moment with the kids. I drew a line in the sand and said ” let’s do this” The kids and I took the first step of my expedition. Together we made our way along the first beach and onto secret locals tr

Expedition Stewart island. Welcome to the first of many blogs about Stewart island. I hope to capture your imagination with the stories of my adventure. The day before. My brain was full of information firing off in every direction at every moment. I knew what I had to do but it seemed like too much for me. I took a few deep breaths and realized my ADHD brain had got the better of me. I needed to relax, but I couldn't. I was so stressed out about the unknown! I was stuck worr