When British adven-turer Jennifer Murray and fellow helicopter pilot Colin Bodill finally achieved their ambition to fly around the globe via the North and South Poles last year, they had seen some of the most splendid landscapes on Earth.
Yet, for Murray, the most impressive moment was revisiting the site in Antarctica where they crashed in white-out conditions in December 2003. 'It was a miracle that we survived,' says Murray, who is married to former Hutchison Whampoa taipan Simon Murray.
'Our helicopter was a write-off, it was minus 50 degrees Celsius and we were [3,200km] from civilisation. Colin broke his back and suffered tremendous internal bleeding - he nearly died.'
Murray dislocated her elbow and fractured ribs, which she described as 'minor injuries' but 'I was too shocked to do anything', she says. Bodill crawled around to erect a tent, lit a stove and wrapped Murray in a sleeping bag before collapsing. They were found four and a half hours later by rescuers from a logistics company, after the Royal Air Force picked up a signal from the helicopter's distress beacon.
Despite the premature, catastrophic ending to that charity expedition, they always knew they would try again. Murray's latest book, Polar First, chronicles their dogged - and victorious - adventure from December 2006 to May 2007 that took their record-breaking ambition full circle.
'Our families understood why we needed to have another go,' says Murray, 68, who lives in England and Hong Kong. 'It was a healing process; it was like falling off a horse. The crash was awful, but we had to try again.'
In Polar First, Murray's diary entries recount their gruelling expedition. More than 200 photographs illustrate the beautiful, and at times unforgiving, locations they encountered: from the Andes mountains to the scorching heat of the Atacama desert of South America, to the hostile southern oceans and the harsh splendour of the polar regions.
