Two brave women are hoping to experience the freezing wastes of Antarctica
WHY WOULD anyone want to travel 500 miles across the most hostile environment on Earth? Where temperatures fall to -30C, winds reach speeds of over 129 kilometres per hour, crevasses lurk beneath the ice and disorientating blizzards last for days at a time?
What sort of person pulls a sledge containing food, fuel and equipment for exactly such a journey? If camping in Polis Chrysochous is your idea of slumming it, how does camping in tents on the ice, surviving on lightweight dehydrated rations and melted snow, sound?
To Athina Rokopou, 28, and Stephanie Solomonides, 25, an experience like that sounds simply amazing.
For them the thought of crossing a wilderness that few have had the privilege to see is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that they hope they will be blessed to live through.
Endless white horizons of ancient snow and ice, big skies where the sun never sets, distant shimmering mountains untouched by man and a silence more complete than any other is something most people only hear about.
But for Athina and Stephanie it could soon become a reality as the duo have been short-listed from over 80 applications in Cyprus to join the Commonwealth Women’s Antarctic Expedition. The two women will fly to Scandinavia next spring to attend the final team selection event.
In December 2009, two teams of four women selected from Cyprus, Ghana, India, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, New Zealand and Jamaica will set off from opposite coasts of Antarctica to ski to the South Pole. Unguided, they will need to rely on each other to navigate themselves safely to their destination.
The teams will meet each other at the South Pole around New Year’s Day 2010 – the year the Commonwealth Games will be held in New Delhi, India.
“It sounds amazing. A desert of white, just ploughing through it,” said Stephanie, an IT Implementation Officer from Nicosia.
Surprisingly, neither woman gave the expedition much thought before applying.
Athina said she just happened to be watching the news the night before the deadline when she heard about it.
“I thought to myself, ‘I want to go there too’. I actually said it aloud,” the Telecommunications Technology Consultant from Athienou in the Larnaca district said.
But instead of going on online to apply immediately, she went out with friends. As she drove home the thought came into her head again and she decided to fill in the on-line application.
“It was a lifetime opportunity I wanted to experience,” she said.
Stephanie’s story was not dissimilar. In her case she’d received an email from a friend with a link to the expedition’s website 30 minutes before the deadline and a note questioning who’d be insane enough to do something like that.
Neither woman really talked about what they’d just done until they were shortlisted and got their interviews with British Polar traveller, Felicity Aston, who will lead the expedition. Hours after that first interview both were told they had made it through to the final round.
The duo emanate positive energy and enthusiasm. Just sitting in their presence, their excitement and dynamism is infectious.
Although they are very different in many ways, they both share an unbending resolve to succeed.
Looking at them you’d never think suspect that they are planning to train for what will likely be one of the hardest physical, mental and emotional challenges of their life.
Stephanie said although this was a journey of personal discovery that would challenge her to the very core, the expedition itself was much more than selfish insight.
“I think a major part of the experience is to be able to bond with seven other women who speak different languages and who are from different religious backgrounds. There is a lot to be learned from them and those experiences can be brought back here. It is a unique experience… It should be incredible. It should be amazing.”
“If I prepare psychologically, I can handle it,” Athina said.
Stephanie believes her sheer determination will get her through the experience. As she continues to talk, her strength of character and resolve shines through and you know this to be true.
“I believe I can do this. This is my goal. I will get through this one way or the other,” she said.
Although she will be bitterly disappointed if she is not selected in the final team, she will be grateful to have made it to Scandinavia and to have met all the other women.
She will also be grateful to have shared the experience with Athina who she will feel ecstatic for “because it’s going to be an amazing experience”.
When Athina speaks it’s almost as if she has surprised herself in applying for the expedition. Nevertheless it’s clear that this is something she has set her mind on and intends to see through to the end. This could be because the Electrical Engineering graduate is a big believer in inspiration and fulfilling goals, something she makes sound so simple.
“First you need to be inspired, then you set your goal and then you go for it,” she laughs.
Stephanie is also raring to go.
“It feels absolutely ecstatic. There is no other way to describe it. I’m really looking forward to the challenge.”
“On September 1 I’m going to start training,” the former English School student said. Swimming and tennis are just two of the activities the former House Captain intends to include in her exercise regime.
But according to the application, team members do not need to be a super fit athletes as training will be provided.
Athina said this fact had helped her feel more confident about her application. Nevertheless she had recently taken up walking outdoors as a first push towards getting into shape ahead of the two-week training session in Scandinavia.
Although exercise might be a shock to her system, the cold will not.
Given a choice of summer or winter, Athina said she’d go for winter. Having studied in Hungary, with temperatures of -10C to -15C, the electrical engineering graduate said she was well used to the cold.
The two women know that the idea behind the expedition is much more than setting national records.
“It sounds weird but I’ve found that people who meet me or have heard about it have become inspired by this. People have come up to me and said they are starting something that they hadn’t done but had always wanted to. I’ve realised that one of the aims of the expedition about making your ambitions a reality is already happening,” Athina said.
She also said she was grateful to the Commonwealth for organising the expedition and for giving her the opportunity to take part in the whole process
According to the expedition’s website it is hoped that all the women taking part will act as role models on their return, undertaking a programme of lectures and school talks to inspire others in their home-countries to strive to make their ambitions a reality, whatever the challenges they may face.
“I hope this injects some enthusiasm into others to do what they want to do. No matter how small, people should just go for their dreams. It is better to attempt and fall over during the process than to always be left wondering,” Stephanie said.
The successful candidate will keep a journal of the expedition and use the website as a blog. For more information www.commonwealthexpedition.com
