The Coldest Place on Earth

Tim Vicary

Oxford Bookworms LibraryLevel 1

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Written for Learners of English by Tim Vicary.

In the summer of 1910, a race began. A race to be the first man at the South Pole, in Antarctica. Robert Falcon Scott, an Englishman, left London in his ship, the Terra Nova, and began the long journey south. Five days later, another ship also began to travel south. And on this ship was Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian.

But Antarctica is the coldest place on earth, and it is a long, hard journey over the ice to the South Pole. Some of the travellers never returned home.

This is the story of Scott and Amundsen, and of their famous and dangerous race.

The Coldest Place on Earth

THE COLDEST PLACE ON EARTH

At the South Pole today there is a building called the Amundsen–Scott Station. Inside the building it is warm and people live and work there both in summer and in winter. Planes fly easily to and from the station, and the rest of the world is only a few hours away. But walk five hundred metres away from the station, and Antarctica is once again the coldest, emptiest place on earth.

In 1911 there were no planes and no buildings at the South Pole. There was nothing. Only snow and ice and wind. There was no British flag, and no Norwegian flag. But across the ice, men were moving slowly south. Scott’s men had ponies, and Amundsen’s men had dogs and skis. The temperatures were –30 °Centigrade and worse. The men were tired, hungry, cold … Who was going to be the first man at the South Pole?

Inside the Amundsen–Scott Station today, there are some words written on the wall – words that Captain Scott wrote in his diary in 1912:

�Great God! This is an awful place.’

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