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Pakistani woman explorer receives a chilly welcome in Antarctica
Pakistani adventurer and artist Namira Salim, on her way to South Pole, yesterday landed in Antarctica.
- By Ashfaq Ahmed, Staff Reporter
- Published: 17:12 January 8, 2008
- Namira Salim at the North Pole last year. The first Pakistani woman to reach it, she is now heading to the South Pole.
- Image Credit: Supplied Picture
Dubai: Pakistani adventurer and artist Namira Salim, on her way to South Pole, yesterday landed in Antarctica.
Talking to Gulf News from her icy campsite, Salim said that she was determined to reach the South Pole despite the extreme weather conditions and many hurdles.
Salim, who lives in Emirates Hills, Dubai, is the first Pakistani woman to reach the North Pole.
She also hopes to be the first to go in space and has already signed up to fly into space this year with Virgin Galactic, a space tourism company.
It took more than 40 hours of flights, plane connections and even an emergency landing before Salim arrived Putna Arenas, Chile, the southernmost tip of South America. “It was from here that my expedition to the South Pole departed aboard a Russian aircraft,'' she said.
However, she said that the flight, a mere four and half hours long, only took off, amid strong winds, snow and poor visibility, after several days of delays due to ferocious weather in Antarctica.
Salim's first leg of the journey was to Patriot Hills, a tourist camp where planes bringing non-scientific visitors to Antarctica.
During her stay at the camp she was faced with the coldest, windiest and driest weather on the planet, which is typical of Antarctica and which remains the biggest challenge for her onward expedition.
While waiting for the weather to clear, Salim has been exploring the local environment through small expeditions in and around Patriot Hills.
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