21/03/01 23:10:48.62 0.net
Friday, March 2. – Lunch. Misfortunes rarely come singly.
We marched to the (Middle Barrier) depôt fairly easily yesterday afternoon, and since that have suffered three distinct blows which have placed us in a bad position.
First we found a shortage of oil; with most rigid economy it can scarce carry us to the next depôt on this surface (71 miles away).
Second, Titus Oates disclosed his feet, the toes showing very bad indeed, evidently bitten by the late temperatures.
The third blow came in the night, when the wind, which we had hailed with some joy, brought dark overcast weather.
It fell below -40° in the night, and this morning it took 1½ hours to get our foot gear on, but we got away before eight.
We lost cairn and tracks together and made as steady as we could N. by W., but have seen nothing.
Worse was to come – the surface is simply awful.
In spite of strong windand full sail we have only done 5½ miles.
We are in a very queer street since there is no doubt we cannot do the extra marches and feel the cold horribly.