On 27 June 1911, three men set off on a polar trip that was to earn itself a remarkable reputation. Their midwinter Antarctic expedition became known, quite simply, as the worst journey in the world.
Henry “Birdie” Bowers, Apsley Cherry-Garrard and Bill Wilson – members of Robert Scott’s doomed Terra Nova expedition to the Antarctic – were aiming to collect emperor penguin eggs in the middle of winter. The trip was supposed to be a scientific prelude to Scott’s thrust to the south pole. It nearly killed its participants.
