Fantastic Fram

During my daily session of heavy procrastination, I did a little researching on the topic: Fram. I must say, I`m a fan. I just never realized it before. While reading about the ship, you obviously read about Mr. Nansen as well. What a man! Many slightly crazy people would come up with the idea to freeze a ship into the Arctic ice, but not many slightly crazy people would do it. Mr. Nansen did, he collected a team, build a boat and set off on a voyage that turned out to last for three years. Stuck in solid massive cold ice. The purpose of the journey was to prove that the Arctic was not land, but a huge piece of thick ice, that moved with currents in the ocean. The documented route shows a trip of unexpected turns, lets just say, it`s not a straight line.

About two years into the expedition, Mr. Nansen got tired of the monotonous life on board. He decided to go for a walk, a walk to the north pole. 600 km away. He and the fortunate Mr. Johansen, 27 dogs and 3 sleighs went off. They soon realized that the Arctic summer was too short. The decision to continue or turn back, ended with an unanimous vote in turn backs favour. But the 180 degrees action was carried out late, and the two gentlemen had only one option. To "hibernate" in a selfmade shelter, somewhere on the endless blanket of white. They spent the entire winter together in a 3,4 x 2 m. "room", surviving on walrus blubber, polar bear meat and whale oil. Jolly times. When spring and light returned, the two of them continued the walk towards south, it turned out to be an adventurous journey. One time the selfmade kayaks drifted off shore during a short rest on an ice flake, Mr. Nansen took off his watch, performed a graceful dive and swam to the rescue in the far from warm water. Another event, was an attack by a polar bear. The fortunate Mr. Johansen ended up in the embracement of this rather violent animal, and Mr. Nansen didn`t have his rifle close. (Amateur). But in the end they both survived and made it back to Norway, with the helping hands of a British, Mr. Jackson.

Mr. Nansen was not only an outdoor man, he also showed great commitment in politics and victims of war after WW1, he got the World Peace Prize in 1922, and the list of other first-class honours is long.