One of the most famous races in history was the race between two great explores, Captain Robert Scott, an Englishman, and Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian, to be the first to reach the South Pole – Race to the South Pole.
Amundsen took an unexplored route while Scott chose a known route. Amundsen and his men made the journey on skis and used Eskimos dogs to pull the sledges carrying their supplies. Scott, on the other hand, used motor-powered sledges as well as ponies and dogs.
But the ponies and motor sledges got stuck in the soft snow, and the men had to pull the sledges themselves! When food supplies ran short, Amundsen shot the weakest dogs and his men ate their flesh. Scott’s men, on the other hand, grew colder, hungrier, and more exhausted.
Amundsen reached the pole first, on December 14th, 1911. Scott’s party reached the pole a month later. Tragically, on their way back, all five men in the group perished. Though they lost the race, their bravery has made them immortal.
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