The cracked & fissured ice-pack offers no comfortable reassurance
- no glimmer of any reward to the traveller who has made his way to the top of the world. The Arctic Ocean known to the Victorians as the Sea of Ancient Ice stares balefully back as we descend towards it reflecting nothing but the question: Why? Michael Palins adventure begins when he is enrolled in the Royal & Ancient Polar Bear Society... Travelling by train truck raft Ski-Doo barge balloon & bicycle Michael Palin experiences every extreme the world has to offer. Braving the cold grip of the Arctic Circle & the swirling snowstorms of Spitsbergen Palin has to cope with friendly locals occasional gunfire & his own unruly digestive system before he can finally stand in Scotts shoes at the South Pole in the Land of the Midnight Sun.