Bear with me - there is an oh-my-gosh payoff at the end of the story.
When World War I was starting, a British explorer named Shackleton and his team of 27 men set out with the goal of being the first to cross Antartica. During the process, their ship got stuck in the ice for seven months before it ultimately sank; they lived on the ice for about 5 months before they put as many of their belongings as they could in three life boats. They rowed more than 100 miles to Elephant Island during snow storms and with only one bisquit per person per day. They lived through blizzards by staying in a hut they built out of the overturned life boats.
Since there is no human life on the island, six of the men took one life boat (the picture I have included here) and primitive navigational tools and paddled 800 miles to the nearest port (which was only 10 miles long). The waves towered over them; they even made it through a hurricane! They landed on the wrong side of the island so three of the men crossed steep mountains and glaciers (with no boots, ice axes, or any other gear) in just 36 hours to get to a tiny whaling outpost. (They had to slide down one steep part of the mountain on their butts.) The six men were reunited and spent 3 MONTHS and several attempts trying to get back to Elephant Island and the other 22 men. The most unbelievable part of it all is that ALL 28 men that went on the expedition made it back to England - more than 600 days after they left (500 of which they were not on solid land - just ice and boats). The documentary was so incredible because it almost exclusively used the crew's paintings, photographs and video from the trip. (so the whole paragraph was the oh-my-gosh part)I thought that Paul and I were on an expedition but now I learn that we are just pansies. Damn.
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