Polar explorers get emergency food drop

Polar explorers Ben Saunders and Tarka L'Herpiniere have received an emergency food drop after running out of supplies on their way back from the South Pole. They set off last October in an attempt to retrace the ill-fated steps of Antartic explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott.

Saunders and L'Herpiniere have been planning and training for ten years in preparation for 110 days in temperatures as low as -50 degrees. Their goal was to make it to the South-Pole and back unassisted, but ultimately they ran into similar difficulties to Scott, who died after running out of supplies.  

Becky asked Paul Rose, Vice President of the Royal Geographic Society, whether this meant that their mission had failed.

"I think it's a great, unqualified success. It's a tremendous journey, 18,000 miles, and the fact that they had to get an air drop support, I mean you could almost have counted on it. It's so ambitious to do that journey totally unsupported that if I was a betting man I probably would have even betted on a bit of support. I mean why not? If Scott and his men had been in those circumstances they would have accepted an air drop too"

They're expected to complete their epic trip in mid-February.

Text: British explorer sets off on history-making expedition