RICHARD PARKS | INTERVIEW
Heather Arnold talks to Antarctic explorer Richard Parks about his record breaking expedition.
Sitting in a Cardiff cafe with Richard, who has only been back in the UK for three days and hasn’t even had the chance to go home yet, he comes across as humble, thoughtful and friendly. With most of his expeditions having a charitable or scientific aim, Parks is clearly not an adventurer in it for the glory, but instead for the experience.
As he tells me about his Antarctic adventure Richard answers my questions slowly. Not because he is tired, though he literally hasn’t stopped since he reached the pole, but because he wants to make sure his answers are thoughtful and truthful.
That and he’s trying to balance speaking with taking bites out of a bacon sandwich – I’m told there is nothing better than a bacon sandwich after a polar expedition.
“Other polar athletes and mountaineers have said that they ‘feel alone but not lonely’,” explains Parks, “however, I thin k exactly the opposite. There were times where I did feel lonely – it’s a really unforgiving environment, arguably the most hostile environment on the planet. I was out there for a long time pushing myself, beyond my limits, on my own.
“I did feel lonely, and it’s bloody tough, but I didn’t feel alone. A lot of people played a part in getting me to this point and it was about much more than me.”
Even in the aftermath of his incredible achievement – not only is Parks the first Welshman to complete the journey but also the second fastest ever in history – he makes sure not to take all the glory and is both honest and modest.
“a mix between a NASA experiment
and a Treforest industrial estate.”
“One thing that played a really important part in my psychology during the expedition was the power of the word team, and it has become really powerful for me. Although I relish solo challenges I see it not just as a 29-day expedition but as a 14-month-long project.
“Everybody played the part of an important cog in the machine and I wouldn’t want to tell those people that I gave up.”
Richard has beaten the previous British record, set by Hannah McKeand in 2006, by a massive 10 days. Although he did not break the world record, which still stands at just over 24 days, Richard is still in awe of what he achieved.
“I felt really overwhelmed,” says Parks as he describes what he thought when he final reached the South Pole. “The pole station is quite a bizarre place – there’s an American scientific base called the Amundsen-Scott station and it is the closest thing that I might well get to a spaceship. It’s an incredible building.
“You have very little to monitor your progress because there’s no landmarks so it seems like your endlessly going nowhere. To get to a point where you can see the end is actually incredible. Really, really emotional. Actually arriving at the pole is really overwhelming because I went from complete isolation to arriving at what can largely be described as a mix between a NASA experiment and a Treforest industrial estate.
“There are so many flags everywhere and there are all these different sectors that are devoted to scientific experiments. There’s a very specific route that you have to approach the pole from, so I was a bit mad in the head and completely lost with all these flag, directions, rules and regulations.
“It was a big day, that lastday: I took a moment to breathe it in and then I just wanted to get back into my tent because that was a safe place for me.”
Talking about his expedition, Richard describes it as an ordeal, but he certainly hasn’t got any regrets: “This has been a really tough expedition… I’ve got a saying, and it goes ‘it doesn’t have to be fun to be fun’. This is the BEST and most extreme example of that saying.”
This Antarctic expedition is far from the only challenge that Richard has taken on. As an international rugby player, he was forced into early retirement in 2009 after an injury. Just one year later, however, Richard became the first person ever to climb the highest mountain on each of the world’s continents and stand on all three poles within seven months.
“I wasn’t ready to retire; I was angry, scared and battling depression at the time. It was a really difficult period,” explains Richard. “It was a sentence read out at my grandmother’s funeral, ‘horizon is only limited by our sight’, which resonated with me and gave me the courage to pick myself up. It’s surreal that this chapter of my life has come from the worst period of my life.”
Now looking forward to a much deserved holiday Richard might not be planning his next expedition yet, but that doesn’t mean that Antarctic isn’t still on his mind.
“I’m fascinated by that heroic age of polar exploration and the incredible men, some of them giving their lives, to pioneer and open the continent to us.”
Just exactly what Richard will do next isn’t clear yet but his sense of adventure and curiosity for the unknown, as he speaks wistfully about a world full of untouched places, hints that it will be something equally impressive. But first another bacon sandwich.
A documentary following Richard on his journey will be broadcast on Channel 5 later this year. Info: www.richardparks.co.uk