The Worst Journey in the World

Excited by the discovery of emperor penguins during Scott's 1901-04 Discovery expedition to the Antarctic, zoologist Edward A Wilson wanted to return to Cape Crozier during the birds' winter breeding season to collect their eggs. Darwin's theory of evolution had been published in 1859, and the hypothesis was that the embryos in the eggs might shed light on the evolutionary link between reptiles and birds.

Wilson returned with Scott on his second expedition, Terra Nova, and on 27 June 1911 - just after mid-winter - he set out on his egg hunt with Henry Robertson 'Birdie' Bowers and Apsley George Benet Cherry-Garrard, who was later to write of this journey as 'the worst journey in the world'.