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Within three days, our sleeping bags were frozen. We couldn't get in them because when you got them out at night, you had to break them apart and climb into these frozen bags. I can't describe it. I've never had that experience since either, that bad. Caroline had really bad fingers, and Pam's toes were really bad. I had mine to frostbite, but not like theirs. They couldn't go out and go the loo in the cold. So they had to pee in the cook pot, and then I would take it out. That was when it was, Right, well, we're stuck in here. Do we pee in the cook pot before we make dinner or after we make dinner.

Oh, my God. My name is Jonny Knoxville. Welcome to Pretty Sure I Can Fly. I'm on here with Ms. Elna Baker.

Hello. How are you doing? I'm good today. We're in real life together. We get to see each other. Yes. The This is exciting.

Very excited, and very excited about today's guest. We've interviewed some tough people on the show, but I don't know that we've interviewed anyone tougher than our guests today.

I think that's fair to say. I think what Anne Daniels has done is something I would never do, and I feel like you would also never do.

No. I can endure some things, but I cannot endure what this woman does for a living. She's a British polar explorer, proud mother of four children, and one of two women, the other being her teammate, Caroline Hamilton, to reach the North and South poles as part of an all-woman team. I'm dying to talk to her. Can we start?

Anne, are you here?

I am. I'm thrilled to be with you.

I'm blown away by what you do. I want to get into it. I just, full disclosure, when it gets 50 degrees, I'm complaining. So you endure minus 50. So I want to get into it. Okay, so you grew up in Britain.

Yeah. Give us the quick Wikipedia of your childhood?

The quick Wikipedia is I went to a normal school, and I left at 15. I didn't go on to higher education. I didn't do college. I got a job to bring money into the family, and that's what I did. And that's what I thought I'd always do. I got a decent job. Probably I was the first white collar worker in my whole family, and I thought that would be it. I thought I'd have a child. But actually, when I was pregnant, I'm having three children. That's.

I want to ask you about the kids because I feel like I read that you got married at 21, and then it took six years and a tremendous amount of effort to have children. And I feel like even reading that, I was like, Oh, it seems as though—and correct me if I'm wrong—that you grew up with the story a lot of women grew up with, that your purpose is to be a mother, and that that would be the thing that fulfilled your life. Is that what you believed?

Yeah. And I guess what's not really out there is it started with a miscarriage when I was 23. And it was there that the journey started because through the miscarriage, they discovered I had cis and all kinds of things going on inside me. And it took six years. First we tried, then we had fertility treatment, and then I went down the route of IVF. But it was in an age where IVF, I remember going to the consultant and he said, He said, Right, can I only have three eggs put back or one? And I went, Well, just the one, please. And he said, Well, because it was early doors. And he said, Well, if you have one, there's a very slim chance you will have any child. If you put three, there's a 17% chance you'll have one, and very unlikely, you'll have triplets. And I said, Okay. Oh, God.

I feel like... So I used to nanny for newborn twins. And it was like I had no self. It was so much work. They were always trying to kill themselves. I was just all day. I was like, okay, these babies are trying to kill themselves. And I remember at this American Life, we had a guy who had twins, and he was like, I don't call it twins. I call it two fucking babies because it's two fucking babies. So you had three fucking babies. I mean, what was that like for you?

I had three fucking babies and two fucking hands. It was really It was. It was like that. Life was completely mad. I think because I've gone six years trying, I just thought, I'm going to make this work. And not only am I going to... It's going to work. I'm going to enjoy it because I'm just not going to have a miserable time after I've gone through all this. And I did. But I think it was just manic in my head. I think I was just hallucinating most of the time and I didn't really sleep. I just ran manically. I was a lunatic. It was all right. Have you ever felt like a vaping to your own desert island. Well, that's exactly what Jane, Phil, and their three kids did when they traded their English home for a tropical island they bought online. But paradise has its secrets, and family life is about to take a terrifying turn. You don't fire at people in that area without some consequence. And he says, Yes, ma'am, he's dead. There's pure cold-blooded terror running through me. From WNDYRI, I'm Alice Levine, and this is the Price of Paradise, the real-life story of an island dream that ends in kidnap, corruption, and murder.

Follow The Price of Paradise wherever you get your podcasts or binge the entire season right now on WNDYRI Plus.

Being a mother of triplets is enough to get a tribute on this show, period. But how did you get into polar exploration?

Well, that was the thing is my marriage disintegrated pretty quickly, pretty quickly. Oh, wow. Like right after having babies. Right after having babies, it I'm integrated, and suddenly I'm facing life on my own with three babies. And honestly, I didn't know what to do. I just was in a world of pain, emotionally, physically. And there was a pivotal moment came, and you remember things afterwards. And I was crossing a bridge. I was walking the children. There was two in a tram and one was walking. And I crossed a bridge, and I had a panic attack. I couldn't breathe. And I thought, How am I going to cope with these babies? How am I going to feed them? How am I going to pay my mortgage? How am I going to bring them up on my own? And it started to... It was on a bridge. I have a panic attack. And I got over it and I took a lot of deep breaths. And my son looked at me and went, Am I all right, Mom? And I went, Yeah. And he went, You don't smile anymore. And oh, God, that cut me. And that's when I thought, Right, you need to stop drowning and you have to do something, something And I don't know what that is.

And then I was shown an advert one day, and it asked for ordinary women to apply to be part of the first all women team to walk to the North Pole. And I had no skiing experience. I'd never been outdoors, but I thought, Oh, I have to do this. And to be quite honest and frank, it isn't, I've got to do this to go to the North Pole. It was just something I had to do to stop panicking and feeling worthless. It's really, if I'm honest. And that's what I did.

Wow, yeah. I mean, it's so out of left field, right? If this were a movie, it'd be like a woman having a breakdown with three children. It's like, Okay, I'm going to go to the North Pole.

I'm surprised she didn't go to Mars. I mean, having triplets. I have no idea.

That was the thing I was just... That was the only thing that I could do. I couldn't go to work. What could I do? And this was the one thing that life's weird. This is the one thing that came my way. So I took it.

It's so funny. What happens after you see this ad? What do you actually have to do?

So I applied, and it wasn't local. That was when... It was all very extreme. I had a pack came through the letter box. And in this pack, there was a kit list. I didn't even understand what was on the kit list. You had to have an order and survey map. Do I know what that is now? I didn't know what it was. I had to ask for rucksacks and compasses and all this stuff. I didn't have any of it and no financial ability to get it, but I lived in a military town. I had a lot military friends, and so I called them. And you know what? They were all men. Not one of them said, Don't be ridiculous, Anne. They all went, Yeah, we'll get you the stuff. And it arrived in about a couple of weeks. It was all green. I don't know where it came from. Never asked. And I turned up in the middle of nowhere, felt like I was in an American Werewolf in London movie. Serified. There was 250 women applied over, and they were all just amazing. I was bound, instructors. They'd done everything, and I couldn't do anything.

I was so bad. I was so bad.

What things did they have you doing?

They were going to have us navigate in, which would have been hopeless because I obviously couldn't do that. But really, luckily for me, the weather was so appalling. So many women turned up that it was dangerous. So they had guides who navigated, and we just followed them around for about, I think it was around 10 hours, and we'd go through streams and that just tough thing. I'm telling you, it got dark and raining, and I was sobbing. I didn't let anybody see me, but I was sobbing. I didn't know what I was doing. And then at the end of that weekend, I thought, Well, I've done this. I'm here. And they said, Go away. In nine months time, we'll pick the team. And if you want to come back, anyone can come back. They didn't even whittle it down to the best hundred. And then they showed PowerPoints and videos of Arctic expeditions. I'd never seen anything. I came from a city and an inner city. I'd never dreamt, ever. I didn't want to be a ballet dancer or an astronaut or anything when I grew up. That's not what we did. I had to dream for the first I want to get on this team.

I want to make it happen. So I went home and I had nine months and I made it happen.

In those nine months, what were you doing to prepare?

So I started to train and get fit. They were 18 months old now, the babies. While they were sleeping, because they slept, I did exercise. I had a really small garden, and I did exercises in my garden that my military friends had told me. And that's what I did. I was just I thought it maybe I could only do 20 minutes, and then I could do 22 and 25. And then the same military friends taught me how to read a map, how to do all that, how to pack my rucksack properly. But what I do know at that time is I thought this could Change our lives. Because if I get to be one of the first women to walk to the North Pole, our life will change. I kept that in my head. Maybe you'll get on TV, maybe you'll be able to speak about it, maybe you'll write a book. I I felt like there would be opportunities where I didn't feel I had any where I was. I didn't know what that would be.

It's both a dream and it's your way out.

It was a way out for sure. That was part of the dream of, wow, this would be amazing to do this, and it's a way out. I didn't know what else to do.

What was the next round of selection process like?

Well, it was It was interesting because I turned up and they were shocked to see me. I was the only one who couldn't do anything. So when I turned up, there was a, Wow, she's come back, because not everybody did. It was four days. And on this four days, we had to, again, walk during the day as a team, and we had to carry extra kit. And who's going to carry it? We had to navigate to as a team. And there was maybe 12 different teams I was six, and there were people watching us. And I didn't mind whether somebody asked me to carry the rope or the pole or whether I was at the front leading. I would do whatever it took or whatever was needed for the team. And I remember they had a race at 2:00 AM. We'd been told we could go to sleep. I'd half an hour sleep, and then we woke up and we had to do this race. And I said, Well, how far is this? And they went, Oh, it's a mile. It's not very far, but you're not in a team now. And I set off with all these people.

They were runners in that. And of course, I just thought, Well, what the hell? I'm going to run as fast as I can and see what happens. And people were going, No, she won't make it. She won't make it. Pace yourself. I thought, fuck that. If I can't do this, I'm not worthy. I came in first. I was sick and couldn't... Oh, wow. Yeah, I came in of all of them. And there were those moments that people went, oh, hang on. She'll do what it takes. She's got what it takes to keep going.

So the great news is you get picked for the team to go on the polar relay, but then it's like, Oh, what am I going to do with the kids while I'm doing this? What happened?

Well, that was a moment I hadn't thought about that, quite surprisingly. Sure. I guess I never thought I'd get on it. And then I just called my mom and dad, and they'd retired, and went, Yeah, we'll come down. And my father, he's not with me, God-loving to death. He was very much... Women stay at home. They have babies, and they don't do this. They don't go to university, you call college. And he didn't really understand it. But what I love about it is, even though he didn't approve, they still came down and said, Yeah, we'll come down and look after them.

I want to suspend belief, Anne, and pretend that I don't know anything about polar exploration, and just talk to us about the conditions you face in the polar relay, like the temperature The temperature, the day to day of it. I am so interested in this just because... How cold was it?

Well, I will, but it makes me smile when you say pretend that you didn't know. When I went to the Arctic Yes. I had never skied. I have never been in the cold. I got off the plane up in a place called Resolute Bay. It's a very high Arctic. It's in Nunova. I got off the plane. I'd been warm all the way up, and I took a deep breath, and I panicked. The hair's up, my nose froze. I thought my lungs were frozen. I ran to the airport, terrified. Made the biggest mistake of any human being who whoever goes up there and just press the metal door knob and my hand stuck to it while I never did that again. And that was just in this civilization. It was really startling for me. And I got used to that first. We spent about a week in Resolute Bay, and I got used to the cold because it was terrifying. So to talk about what it's like is it was a relay. I was on the first leg. When we walked on the Arctic Ocean, it was just mind-blowingly wonderful for me to look at. You were walking on a crisp Thick crisp of ice on the ocean, and it moved.

You were pulling your sledges over huge ice boulders and ridges where the ice had pressured together that were meters in high 8:00, and then thin ice and open water. And the temperature on that expedition, the coldest it got to for us was minus 38, and that's cold. It's just unbelievably cold. You're pulling everything you need in a sledge. You're pulling it. We didn't have dogs or skidoos, everything in a sledge. And then at the end of the day, you've got to pull your heavy equipment. You're exhausted, you're cold, have to move your feet and your fingers all the time or else they'll freeze. Then at the end of the day, you put this tiny little tent up that's less than a millimeter in thickness, and you feel safe until the ice starts moving around the tent and you realize, oh, you're not that safe. And we did that every day. It was a relay. So on day 17, I left, and then the next team came in.

And I have great admiration for what you do, but this sounds like pure hell. Minus 37 degrees. The ice is moving under you. There's open water. I assume there's crevices that you got to avoid. What happens when you get wet?

Right. So crevices are Antarctica because that's land. In the Arctic, going to the North Pole is just a notion. So yes, it breaks, but you don't want to go in there because you're in water. We didn't go in. Well, I did fall in the water. So on that first ride, I did. I forget about that. God, how could I? So we were skiing on thin ice, and I was in... Coming.... It's thin ice. We were on thin ice. So the ice, when you first leave, it could be meters thick, but there are areas of thin ice and open water where the ice is all separated. And the girl before me, her feet broke out the ice and I thought, I'm going in. I'm going in. Oh, God, I'm going in. Nothing I can do because I couldn't stop and turn round. It was an in a went. I'm in proper in. And because They'd all gone around the corner. The women ahead of me didn't see I'd gone in. I'm on my own in the water.

No.

Oh my God. No, it's coming to help me. So I tried to climb out over this. Like I said, we were going around a ridge, and I almost got out, and then the ice broke away, and I went in, and I tried again, and I went in. And it was honestly at that point that I thought, Oh, wow. If you don't get out this next time, you're going to have to try and break the ice and just get around because you could die now. You've got to get home. You've got three three-year-olds, you're not dying. And the third time, I managed to launch myself up onto the ridge, but I was cut off. And then one of the girls put their head around and saw that I was there and called one of the guys, and I had to have a rope thrown, one of these throw lines thrown and managed to pull me out. I got out and I'll never forget it. I got out and I get on Because you have the thin ice and you step up onto thicker ice and snow. I got out and I'm wet through. Everybody's slightly traumatized by it, especially the guys, because they think, Oh, my Lord, she's in a state.

And then they went, And you have to roll yourself in snow. What do you mean? What do you mean? What do you mean roll myself in snow? I'm not doing that. But of course, I did. And snow is a good absorber. And then they said, It's up to you. Do you want to put the tent up because you are in trouble, or we'll pull the sledges and you can get warm that way? And I said, Well, let's just pull the sledges and I'll get warm that way. But it took hours before it got warm again. That was a tricky moment. Yeah, I didn't like that very much.

I don't even know what to say about that.

Yeah. Well, and I know you'll talk I'll find it later because I'm sure we're going there, but it's not as bad as being stalked by polar bears.

Oh, yeah. We'll get to that. How are you feeling after relay? And how are the people that sent you there feeling about you?

Well, it was interesting because I came off and the next team came on and everybody was just so I flew into London. I'll never forget it. And I walked through the airport doors just having no idea of the reception. And there were cameras everywhere and I did the rounds of TV and newspaper, even though at this point, the girls are still on the ice. They didn't even got there. And that was fairly startling, but you get used to it. And then I went home and my parents left the next day. I can't blame them. They've had three babies. They packed their bags and ran out the house. I got a call one day and I just had the phone rang, the old landline phone, because we didn't have mobiles then either. I ran out to the hall where I walked, and somebody called me and went, They've made it. We've made it. You've made it. And that's the first I knew that actually that expedition was successful. I was at home with my children, but it did change my life. It really, really changed my life. But I didn't know what would happen. I knew something would.

And I was asked to do a talk for a group It was a women's group. And I said, Would you come and do a talk? And I went, No, I'm too busy. I've got children and I'm not talking. And I don't do that. No. They went, Oh, we'll pay you. Oh, oh. Okay. Maybe I will then. And they paid me, so I didn't have an income. So I was so grateful. But it was that first talk that I gave it, and I was terrified, and I thought about it. And somebody there went, You've got a skill. You can make money doing this. And that was, I guess, how it changed my life. I celebrated the millennium by drinking a few Bottles of Strawberry Hill Boon's Farm, and you celebrated it in a different way.

You and I think three other women were made a bid to become the first British women or the first, I think, all women team to walk to the South Pole.

We left from the edge of Antarctica in 1999, in end of November, if I remember rightly.

And what are the differences? I was reading about the difference between going to the North Pole and the South Pole. The conditions are very different. And in this case, you're often walking in wideouts for just days. Tell me about, I guess, the gnarliest things you have to endure when you're in going to the South Pole.

The South Pole, it is the highest, coldest, windiest continent on Earth, and all the winds are catabatic, so they're gravity-driven, and they come from the top of the plateau down to the edges. So as you're walking to the South Pole, the wind is always in your face, always. It's really noisy. But after a while, you don't hear it because it's just constant. And so going to the South Pole, you have to have every piece of skin covered because you will get frostbite with the wind and the cold. When you put your tent up at night, it's really cold during the day, extraordinarily cold. And you are going over wave and wave of ice and snow. You put the tent up and you light the cooker. Because it's not a marine environment, your tent gets really hot with the sun and your cooker. And all day you're frozen. And then at night, we were taking our tops off while we were cooking. But I think the tough days were the whiteout when you can't see and you're navigating, because I navigate with the sun, not with the GPS, but you can't. So it's an old-fashioned compass, a slow one, and you can't see.

And sometimes we did that once for three days. But then on the third day, it all cleared, and we'll never forget it. The sun was out, and it had two rainbows that I called it. And there was a wow moment. We looked to our right, and there was a mountain in the distance, and where the sun was just catching it. And it looked, we called it Avalon. It was just magical, and it took our breath away. And that's when you go through the whiteout, you wonder what the hell you're doing there. And then when that happens, you stop and take a breath and think, Wow, yes, this is why I do what I do. It's magical.

Yeah. I mean, Of all the things I read, for some reason, the whiteout one was the one that I was just like, that would be so fucking awful. It's so destroying.

It's so destroying. So you don't see anything. There's nothing to take your mind off it.

Can you just describe the process of eating and what you were eating and the concerns? I read that you couldn't take a chocolate bar out there because it gets so cold, it would break your teeth. Can you walk us So you need really high calorific food that you can pull.

So it's no good taking a whole load of vegetables because you wouldn't be able to pull the amount of calories you need. We ate just short of 6,000 calories a day. And you have to make that as light as possible. So the things that you want to take are things like butter, chocolate, cheese, salami, nuts, all those things. But of course, it's frozen, so So you can't bite a frozen Mars bar, let's say, or you have Snickers, don't you? Or whatever it is. You can't bite it. It just won't break. So before we left, in the morning, we would have porridge. So let me just go through it and I'll tell you what we did. So in the morning, we had porridge with powder milk and butter, and we would melt the snow and the ice around us. There's lots of water in the form of snow, and we would put that in a pan and melt it with... We use liquid fuel. And then we'd add that to the porridge in the morning. During the day, we had a big snack bag, and it was huge. And it was chocolate, cheese, nuts, all those things.

Gosh, I have so much butter. And then eat that, so much. And it was 6,000 calories a day. And I still lost, or you don't just know, it's everything. 28 28 pounds in weight, even though I ate 6,000 calories a day, we were working that hard. There's an American base at the South Pole. And like I said, when we went in 2000, nobody went, and definitely women didn't go. But two hours before we got there, it suddenly came up out of the mist. And it was this American base, and it had a big dome, and you could see skidoos in the distance. We were so excited, and we're skiing towards the base. All the base run out, the whole base run out, and we're, oh, they're coming to tell us off. Oh, my God. So we stood there, we were so English about it. We went, Right, well, who's going to go forward? And they all stopped. Who's going to go? And speak to them. And what was really special was they'd sent women forward for the last few feet till we got to the Pole because they had thought about it, or the base commander or somebody who knows, and had thought about it and thought, We can't send men to meet them because will they be able to plan to be the first women's team to go to the Pole?

How clever was that?

Wow.

That's really nice. So they weren't mainly Americans. And we got to the Pole and they took a picture of us.

How far had you traveled to reach the South Pole and how long did it take?

712 miles, give or take, a few feet. Oh, my God. And it took 60 days to get there.

I have such anxiety listening to these stories. I know.

I know. Yeah.

Can you Tell us what the next expedition was and who was going?

Say, I'm huffing already. So I've been to the notpoll, but no women's team had gone all the way without a recycling of bodies. And I thought, we can do this. And so that was right. I've got to put this together. And so I spoke to Pomme, Oliver and Caroline Hamilton and said, we can do this. And At first, they were a bit hesitant because they'd been to the North Pole on the relay and they knew that it was hell, but I really believed it. So we put it together and we raised the money. And in 2002, we left from the same place at Waterhunt Island. And I thought I knew what to expect. I'd done minus 38 that year, and it was tracked. This is not just, Oh, let's pretend and just add a bit for bunses. It was minus 46 to minus 58 for the first 27 days. Oh, my God. It was perfect. And it's a marine environment, so there was no heat at night. It was just unbelievable.

And are you getting frostbite?

Well, at the beginning, we were getting frost damage. So where your fingers got really wooden and we were moving them. And it was just painful every moment of every day. But within a couple, three days, our sleeping bags were frozen. So I'll tell you, we couldn't get in them because when you got them out at night, you had to break them apart and climb into the It was frozen bags. I can't describe it how... I've never had that experience since either, that bad. And then you're on an ocean, so you know the ice moves. But we put the So we put the tent up, early day, 6:00, 7:00, we put the tent up. And in the middle of the night, it was as if there was a train coming. And we open the tent door and this huge... The ice is breaking up around us. It's Lising up. And we had to get out of there in the middle of the night, early hours. And then we got out, and then a storm appeared, and we're experts in putting tent up. Couldn't get the tent up. They had to put the material on the ice and just climb under it and lie there next to each other with the material in our bags, but with the material weighted down by the sledges.

And just lie there for three days while the wind battered us until it ended. Then we got frost by while we were there. We couldn't light a cooker to warm up. We couldn't pull our sledges to warm up. We just had to ride it out and we got frostbitten toes and fingers. Then it ended and we put the tent... It ended and we put the tent up and that was all right for a little while. We had another storm with the tent up, and it was then. Caroline had really bad fingers and Pom's toes were really bad. I had to mind the frostbite, but not like theirs, and they couldn't go out and go the loo in the cold. So they had to pee in the cook pot, and then I would take it out. And that was when it was, Right, well, we're stuck in here. Do we pee in the cook pot before we make dinner or after we make dinner. We got to cook in it anyway the next time. So I went, Let's do it before. What the hell? Who cares? We're alive. That was our mantra. We're alive. If you're in pain, you're not dead.

That was the thing. And unfortunately, at this point, Pam's frostbite was so bad. We had a resupply plane on day 47. She'd had to leave. So it's just me and Caroline. She had to leave. I saw that she had wet gangrene. She had wet gangrene and frostbite. I promise you I've got photographs of them. What is that? It's where the frostbite becomes infected, and so it's all manky and She was a heroine because she skied to the resupply plane knowing she'd have to leave, so she wouldn't get there just to give the expedition the best chance it could have. It was It was such a heroic thing to do because she knew she'd have to leave.

Where was the gangrene? Like, what part of her body? Toes.

All her toes. It took her... Well, her feet would never be the same. She'll never do cold again. She's 72 now. She'll never do cold again. So she went off to do Sinai Desert last year at 72. Why wouldn't you? She's a real cookie.

Why wouldn't you? I can think of a There's no damn reasons why you wouldn't.

After 80 days, we got there. We got there. I can talk about it now and you're asking questions, so I explain it. But when you come back, you forget about the horror, mainly. You remember the beauty, the friendship, the get in there, the ice crystals, the gorgeous. You become one with nature. It's not just brutal. It is brutal, but it's also... It is beautiful. It's beautiful. It's spiritual. It's just the most pure, magnificent life as well, weirdly.

Oh, my goodness. I know. This is amazing. I'm so fascinated by all this. Thank you. Can you talk about your experience with Polar Bear?

Oh, yeah, I'm done. You said, stocked by Polar Bearers, and I've been on the edge of my seat ever since.

Oh, God. So, boyd on with my success of being the first one in the world to go to both poles because we made it, I think. And I'm guiding a bit more. And I think, Well, no woman's gone solo and unsupported to the North Pole. I can do it. So, oh, dear Lord. Solo. On my own. You sound drunk on your own. Jesus. Yeah, what the hell possessed me? I have no idea. But But anyway, I left from Siberia and I never had a polar bear encounter, ever. And I'm off on my own, all alone, thousands of miles of nothing. And I see polar bear prints everywhere. And I'm going to have an encounter. They're fresh as I don't know what. Then I got a bit worried and thought, Will I write... Everybody says that you can see them. So obviously, I did training up there. But why I don't see them in all this white? But you do. You really do. And I saw this yellowy... It's a creamy color, and it was a big bear. And I saw it, and And then I saw another, and then I saw another, and my head's going, but they're so much creatures.

But I also know because there's less ice, less food, that they are known to be hunting together now. So I'm in a slight panic. A slight panic. My hair's frozen. I looked like this mad old lady. Still do, but without frozen hair now. So I get my gun out. You have to have a gun in order to be allowed to have a permit onto the ice. And I'd been given a Magnum 44, which was just ridiculous. The Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry thing. So I get it out and I think, right, shoot the ice. I'm not shooting Polo bears, shoot the ice. But you have to let them get really close so that they know the bang is coming from you to the eyes. You get bangs and noises in the Arctic, the ice breaks. So it's really counterintuitive just waiting for them to get close. And I videoed it.

Oh, that's terrifying.

Anyway, I let the bears get close. And as they got closer, what I realized is actually it was a female bear, and she had her cubs, and they would be male because they were almost her size, so maybe around two years. So she gets close. I take the video.

How close? How close is she getting to you?

Fifty meters. They're close. Too close. Too close. I thought so. My heart's going. So I shot the eyes and it was textbook. They ran away. And I'm carrying on. And on the seventh day, I put my tent up and I I wake up and I... This was the one. I wake up and I'm having my breakfast porridge. I saw a shadow around the tent. And at first I just caught it... Oh, a shadow. I caught it off the corner of my eye. And I thought, who's there? Well, who do you think is there, Anne? Oh, my God. So I got my gun and I opened the tent door and he was now... I mean, we're talking there, 5 meters, 10 meters. He's outside my tent Oh, no. He's on his hind legs. And I know that when they're on their hind legs, they're not actually coming for you because they're exposing all their organs. They're looking around. They're curious. But let me tell you, when you've got a bear that close on his hind legs, it's not fun. So I'm panicking a little bit. You shoot the eyes and the bear will go, You've done this.

So I shot the eyes to the right of him, and he just looked down and then looked at me as if to say, Is that it? So I thought, Okay. So I shot the ice to the other side of him. He still didn't go. And to be honest, that That's when I had real fear because I thought, You've got six bullets. You can't keep trying to frighten him away because you're going home. So use one more bullet to try and frighten him and then just see what happens. And I shot over his head. And what I found out later from my military friends is if a bullet goes over your head, it bangs. And he did look up, and then he just dropped on all fours and left. So I got dressed And pat the tent, they'll sod the breakfast. I'm getting out of here.

My goodness. And there's so much... It's just a drop in the bucket that we wanted to discuss with you, but we've kept you long enough. I mean, we haven't got to all your your research and all you've done for climate change. And we're just wondering, is there anything you want to say before we go?

Yeah, I do. I found myself in a difficult situation, and okay, I managed to get out of it and do some great things. But why do we wait until we're in a difficult situation before we feel that we can achieve more or do things? And I think that would be what I would I want to share is go and try to what you want to do, not what somebody else does. And don't wait until you have to do something. Just go do it and live a good life. And that's it, really. I just feel lucky to have been able to do it and to be able to have those four beautiful children as well.

Well, you have definitely made your own luck. You're an inspiration You're an inspiration to women. You're an inspiration to men. I sit here in awe of you. And I just thank you so much for coming on our podcast. It's really been a pleasure. Oh, you're welcome.

Yeah, it's been an honor to talk to you.

Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank you.

It's so cold in here. I swear to God. And I don't know if I'm just Emotionally, having like… But I'm literally free.

It's probably like 65 degrees in here, and she's in minus 50.

Falling through ice, into water multiple times, getting stalked by polar bears.

Yeah, I was anxious throughout the whole interview.

It's just crazy.

It's just you ask yourself, how does she pull off? How does she do this? How does she persevere? But you hear her talk and she tells the stories with a laugh. She's so positive. Yeah.

And matter of fact about, yes, she lost her toes.

You can't be a negative person and be a polar explorer. You're not going to last two seconds. It's just, positivity will take you a long way. But she is She's so mentally tough. I was just struck by that, just how mentally tough she is. She's an extraordinary person.

All right. Good work. We did it again.

I think I'm going to go have some whiskey tonight in honor of Anne Daniels. All right. Mua.

Mua.

Follow Pretty Sure I Can Fly on the WNDYRI app, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcast. You can listen to every episode of Pretty Sure I Can Fly early and ad-free right now by joining WNDYRI Plus in the WNDYRI app or on Apple podcast.

Pretty Sure I Can Fly is a production of Smartlist Media, Campside Media, and Amplify Pictures. It's hosted by me, Alma Baker, and Jonny Knoxville. Our senior producer and showrunner is Rajeev Gola. The associate producer is Morgan Jaffee. Sound mixing by Blake Rook, sound design and theme music by Mark McAdam. Our executive producers are Josh Dean and Mark McAdam. For Smartless Media, the executive producers are Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Richard Corson. Bernie Kaminski is the head of production for Smartless Media. The associate producer for Smartless is Maddie McCam. At Campside Media, the executive producers are Josh Dean, Matt Sheer, Vanessa Gregoriades, and Adam Hoff. And at Amplify, the executive producers are Joe Lewis, Rachel Agaveen, and Colin Miller. Brian Donohoe is Amplify's associate producer. Thanks for listening. We hope you've enjoyed the big balls you've just heard, and next week you'll have more balls.

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