Photo: Supplied
Andrew Bayly still remembers the "visual assault" of Antarctica, the piercing blue clarity and scale-bending brightness.
The National MP tells how he once convinced his companions to join him on what he thought would be a short trip to climb a nearby peak. They borrowed skis, promised they would be back for lunch and set off.
Instead, the trek stretched for hours, across a crevasse field and then up a seemingly endless slope. The mountain turned out to be 12 kilometres away.
"We didn't get back to the base until late that night," Bayly laughs.
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