0:01:38 > 0:01:45This is the hut at Cape Evans where Captain Scott and his party spent the winter of 1911.
0:01:45 > 0:01:52The freezing Antarctic temperatures have kept everything exactly as it was.
0:01:52 > 0:01:59Food, equipment, even clothing and the bedding on the bunks as if it was yesterday.
0:01:59 > 0:02:06This is how it was on June 6th, 1911, Scott's 43rd birthday.
0:02:06 > 0:02:13He and his team were spending the winter here, before starting the trek to the Pole.
0:02:13 > 0:02:19They lightened the long, dark days with their own entertainment.
0:02:19 > 0:02:27But these were serious-minded men. For some of them, reaching the Pole was of secondary importance.
0:02:27 > 0:02:34They were studying geology, biology, glaciology, meteorology and had a well-equipped laboratory.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41And that is still here too.
0:02:45 > 0:02:50Photography was in the hands of Herbert Ponting.
0:02:50 > 0:02:58He took cine film as well as still photographs, and had his own darkroom.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01They had large stocks of tinned food.
0:03:03 > 0:03:08We now know that this was not nearly as nutritious as they thought.
0:03:08 > 0:03:14Vitamin deficiencies contributed to the disaster that was to come.
0:03:26 > 0:03:31As they waited, they knew that farther along the coast
0:03:31 > 0:03:39the Norwegian, Amundsen and his team were waiting to try and beat them to the Pole.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44On November 1st, at the beginning of the summer,
0:03:44 > 0:03:51Scott and four companions set off on the 800 mile march to the South Pole.
0:03:51 > 0:03:56They wore clothes made of wool and cotton like these.
0:03:56 > 0:04:01They travelled on long wooden skis with simple bindings
0:04:01 > 0:04:09and transported their equipment and food on sledges which they pulled themselves,
0:04:09 > 0:04:12instead of using dogs, like Amundsen.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16They reached the Pole on 17th January,
0:04:16 > 0:04:21to find that Amundsen had got there 34 days before them.
0:04:21 > 0:04:28On the way back they ran short of supplies and died only 11 miles from a food depot
0:04:28 > 0:04:33and less than 100 miles from the safety of this hut.
0:04:33 > 0:04:39Today, some 80 years later, a great deal has changed.
0:04:39 > 0:04:44Modern fabric keeps you warm during the worst of conditions,
0:04:44 > 0:04:49satellites make communication and navigation easy,
0:04:49 > 0:04:54and every day an aircraft flies directly to the Pole.
0:05:03 > 0:05:10Captain Scott marched for 79 exhausting days to reach the Pole.
0:05:10 > 0:05:17This plane will make exactly the same journey in less than 3 hours.
0:05:19 > 0:05:27As you fly along Scott's route, it is not only the sheer distance that impresses you;
0:05:27 > 0:05:32It's also the appalling difficulties of the terrain.
0:05:32 > 0:05:39To begin with, Scott used a combination of motor-sledge, ponies and dogs,
0:05:39 > 0:05:47but after 409 miles, he and his men hauled the sledges themselves, each pulling 90 kilos.
0:05:50 > 0:05:56The decision not to use dogs throughout was probably their undoing.
0:05:56 > 0:06:03Amundsen, by doing so, made the journey much more quickly and with less physical effort.
0:06:03 > 0:06:10So when Scott and his team reached the Pole, they found Amundsen's tent already there,
0:06:10 > 0:06:18with a note for Scott to deliver to the King of Norway should Amundsen himself fail to return.
0:06:21 > 0:06:28Scott, when he arrived and found the Norwegian flag already planted by Amundsen
0:06:28 > 0:06:30wrote in his journal,
0:06:30 > 0:06:38"Great God, this is an awful place." And so it must have been for those five men,
0:06:38 > 0:06:43exhausted and bitterly disappointed, with the return journey to face.
0:06:43 > 0:06:51Today, some 80 years later, neither explorer would recognise the place.
0:06:51 > 0:06:57This summer, over 100 scientists and support staff
0:06:57 > 0:07:04will live and work, protected from the worst of the weather by this dome.
0:07:04 > 0:07:10Beneath it are smaller insulated buildings,
0:07:10 > 0:07:16It stands 16 metres high. It's like a space station,
0:07:16 > 0:07:23an isolated capsule floating on slowly-moving ice, nearly 3000 metres above sea-level.
0:07:25 > 0:07:30All supplies for the Pole Station have to be brought in by air.
0:07:30 > 0:07:37Even in summer, the supply aircraft have to keep their engines running
0:07:37 > 0:07:40to stop them from freezing.
0:07:40 > 0:07:45The fuel they bring is transferred to vast bladders
0:07:45 > 0:07:51which will last the station through the winter.
0:07:51 > 0:07:58The South Pole is the best place on earth to observe the heavens above.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01The atmosphere is free from pollution,
0:08:01 > 0:08:06and the stars don't disappear below the horizon
0:08:06 > 0:08:09so they can be observed continuously.
0:08:18 > 0:08:23Working in Antarctica demands a special kind of scientist.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26You may have the most brilliant mind,
0:08:26 > 0:08:34but that may be of little use if you can't pitch a tent or re-start a diesel engine.
0:08:41 > 0:08:46Most of the stations are built on the edge of the continent,
0:08:46 > 0:08:54like the Australian base at Mawson. They stand on rock instead of ever-moving ice.
0:09:00 > 0:09:07Here there are other living creatures with which to share your life.
0:09:07 > 0:09:13Emperor penguins, like you, will sit out the winter.
0:09:19 > 0:09:26The wintering crews will see no other human being for six months or more.
0:09:30 > 0:09:36They must find a way of living together. A routine is all important.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42There is plenty to do.
0:09:42 > 0:09:47Not only scientific work, but keeping the station running.
0:09:47 > 0:09:53Looking after the dogs is a much-sought-after job.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58Food becomes hugely important.
0:09:58 > 0:10:04The cook is one of the most critically watched members of the team.
0:10:18 > 0:10:26Most bases have at least a year's supply of food in reserve, in case of emergencies.
0:10:26 > 0:10:31And most also have a building away from these living quarters,
0:10:31 > 0:10:38fully stocked with food, in case of the worst disaster of all a fire.
0:10:38 > 0:10:46No human being could survive without shelter in these conditions for more than a few hours.
0:10:47 > 0:10:53As winter advances and days shorten, the sun skims closer to the horizon,
0:10:53 > 0:10:56and eventually drops below it.
0:10:56 > 0:11:01Now there will be no sunlight for 37 days.
0:11:03 > 0:11:10Mid-winter day. On Mawson Base it is marked with a great party.
0:11:10 > 0:11:18Entertainments that have been secretly practised for weeks are now performed in public.
0:11:28 > 0:11:36OUT-OF-TUNE SINGALONG "Waltzing Matilda"
0:11:50 > 0:11:58Outside, the darkness is broken only by one of Nature's most extraordinary spectacles
0:11:58 > 0:12:04the southern lights, the aurora australis.
0:12:24 > 0:12:29As the sun returns, so do the Adelie penguins.
0:12:29 > 0:12:37They come to one of their traditional colonies only a mile from Mawson Base.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41It's now one of the best-studied of all.
0:12:41 > 0:12:49A wire-fenced corridor with an electronic beam ensures that some of the birds,
0:12:49 > 0:12:55as they go to and from the sea, are counted and weighed.
0:12:55 > 0:13:03A few are caught and measured in detail, to keep a check on the colony's progress.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17Some are given prominent markings,
0:13:17 > 0:13:22so that they can be identified even at a distance.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28It is, it must be said, rather disfiguring,
0:13:28 > 0:13:33but it will disappear at the next moult,
0:13:33 > 0:13:38and it hasn't lessened the affection of its partner.
0:13:43 > 0:13:48Dogs have been used here since Amundsen's day.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51But dogs are ecological aliens
0:13:51 > 0:13:56and it has been decided that they must go.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59Many regret that.
0:13:59 > 0:14:05Dogs are great companions, and they can detect one of the major hazards...
0:14:05 > 0:14:11a snow-covered crevasse. No motorised sledge can do this.
0:14:11 > 0:14:16This team will be sent to Minnesota in the United States.
0:14:16 > 0:14:24Its departure will mark the end of a great chapter in the short history of mankind in the Antarctic.
0:14:27 > 0:14:32They will be replaced by motorised 'quikes'.
0:14:32 > 0:14:38There is a limit to the amount of fuel such vehicles can carry,
0:14:38 > 0:14:46so they can't cover such great distances as a dog team. But they do travel faster.
0:14:46 > 0:14:53It used to take two days, with dogs, to reach Mawson's Emperor colony. Now it's a three-hour drive.
0:14:56 > 0:15:04All year round, scientists visit this colony to monitor its progress as part of a long-term study.
0:15:18 > 0:15:24There is a serious scientific purpose behind this rugby tackling.
0:15:25 > 0:15:29The bird is to be fitted with a transmitter
0:15:29 > 0:15:38that will send regular signals by way of an orbiting satellite to a monitoring station in Tasmania.
0:15:42 > 0:15:49If this bird is like others, it is now setting off on a 100 mile march to reach open water.
0:15:49 > 0:15:56Once there, it will dive to an astonishing depth of 450 metres to catch fish,
0:15:56 > 0:16:01and all the time be recording information to say where it is.
0:16:01 > 0:16:09Hundreds of miles to the north, a grey-headed albatross is providing similar information.
0:16:09 > 0:16:16It, too, has a transmitter which reveals where it collected the food
0:16:16 > 0:16:20which it is bringing back to its hungry chick.
0:16:23 > 0:16:30It belongs to a colony that has been studied for 15 years by a British team.
0:16:30 > 0:16:36The old method of weighing birds was with a simple spring balance.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39But now they have a new device.
0:16:39 > 0:16:45The scales are electronic and concealed inside a fibreglass nest.
0:16:45 > 0:16:53From now on, there will be no need to man-handle the chick just to get its weight.
0:16:55 > 0:17:03The scales transmit a reading every ten minutes to a nearby hut with recording apparatus.
0:17:03 > 0:17:10This shows that one of the parents brings back 500 grams of squid, fish, lamprey and krill every 3 days.
0:17:12 > 0:17:19The adult has travelled several hundred miles in the process of doing so.
0:17:27 > 0:17:33To film this series, we drew heavily on the discoveries
0:17:33 > 0:17:39made by scientific teams all over the continent.
0:17:39 > 0:17:47We wanted to film just what those albatross and penguins did in the open ocean.
0:17:47 > 0:17:54This involved developing cameras and lenses for these hostile conditions.
0:17:56 > 0:18:04Swimming in near-freezing seas may be second nature to an albatross,
0:18:04 > 0:18:09but it's a daring thing for a cameraman to do.
0:18:11 > 0:18:16The reward, for him, is sights that have never been filmed before.
0:18:16 > 0:18:21On board our ice-strengthened vessel, the ABEL-J,
0:18:21 > 0:18:27we carried boats, diving gear and video apparatus.
0:18:27 > 0:18:35As well as free-diving cameramen, we had remote control cameras mounted on the inflatables.
0:18:38 > 0:18:44One of our priorities was to find a swarm of krill.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47After weeks of searching, we did.
0:18:50 > 0:18:55And so did a pair of humpback whales.
0:18:58 > 0:19:05The remotely controlled video cameras gave us unique pictures.
0:19:07 > 0:19:14They recorded, in unparalleled detail, the whole of the whales' fishing technique
0:19:14 > 0:19:20from the moment they released their curtain of bubbles,
0:19:20 > 0:19:26hemming in and concentrating the krill, to the final catch.
0:19:34 > 0:19:41We also had another vessel, a small steel-hulled yacht, the Damian II.
0:19:41 > 0:19:48She had a retractable keel, and could operate in waters a metre deep,
0:19:48 > 0:19:53and go into shallow bays where no other vessel had been.
0:19:55 > 0:20:01Jerome Poncet is the skipper and owner of the Damien.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05With his biologist wife, he has spent ten seasons
0:20:05 > 0:20:11exploring every cove and bay on the Antarctic peninsula.
0:20:11 > 0:20:16He knows them in a way no-one else does.
0:20:26 > 0:20:33He was able to land camera teams on tiny, remote and uninhabited islands.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37A radio hook-up linked the camps and ships,
0:20:37 > 0:20:44which were often separated by several hundred miles of ice or ocean.
0:20:54 > 0:20:58A camera on a jib arm.
0:20:58 > 0:21:04It gives a splendid high-angle view of a penguin colony
0:21:04 > 0:21:11and enables you to move alongside an individual penguin on its perambulations.
0:21:13 > 0:21:20But it weighs 120 kilos and carrying it over rocky cliffs is not easy.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26To get un-bumpy pictures on the move,
0:21:26 > 0:21:33cameraman Paul Atkins used a special mount and harness called a Steadicam.
0:21:35 > 0:21:42He could move smoothly into close quarters with tricky subjects
0:21:42 > 0:21:45like these fighting fur seals.
0:21:57 > 0:22:05Blizzards often brought land-based operations to a halt but work could be done underwater,
0:22:05 > 0:22:09if you can dig out the air cylinders.
0:22:09 > 0:22:16Diving under the ice is very different from doing so in the open ocean.
0:22:16 > 0:22:23I'm generally a warm weather diver. I like warm weather, sunshine, palm trees and hammocks.
0:22:23 > 0:22:28I jumped into a seal hole, and they handed me my camera.
0:22:28 > 0:22:34I wasn't too cold, except where my mouth held my regulator.
0:22:34 > 0:22:42Suddenly, I found myself looking at one of the most extraordinary scenes I have ever experienced.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54I dropped down through a hole in the ice.
0:22:54 > 0:23:02There was absolsutely no sound except the distant trills of the weddell seals.
0:23:10 > 0:23:18Weddell seal researcher Amal Amji works underwater too but she doesn't get wet.
0:23:20 > 0:23:27She is suspended from a capsule ten metres down beneath the ice.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31From there, she records the sounds of the seals
0:23:31 > 0:23:37while noting on a tape recorder the details of their movements.
0:23:43 > 0:23:48There's a pair at the hydrophone, probably the loudest animals.
0:23:48 > 0:23:53There's one single seal that's on my left,
0:23:53 > 0:24:01and it seems to be watching the mother and pup that were near the hydrophone.
0:24:10 > 0:24:17Other researchers have been studying a colony of Emperor penguins for many years.
0:24:17 > 0:24:23They watch them underwater from within a protective cage,
0:24:23 > 0:24:30for there are dangerous penguin hunters leopard seals or killer whales.
0:24:30 > 0:24:35This leopard seal is huge, nearly 4 metres long.
0:24:40 > 0:24:48A remotely controlled camera will record the exit of the fleeing penguins.
0:24:55 > 0:25:00But even out of water they're not out of danger.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04Another leopard seal waits for them.
0:25:26 > 0:25:31Many people reckon that the leopard seal
0:25:31 > 0:25:36is the most dangerous killer in Antarctic waters
0:25:36 > 0:25:42and that it would be suicide to get in the water with one.
0:25:42 > 0:25:49But Peter Scoones and Doug Allan wanted to film them without the encumbrance of a cage.
0:25:49 > 0:25:57I've been underwater with all the other species of seals and I felt they wouldn't attack...
0:25:57 > 0:26:00At least not without some warning.
0:26:00 > 0:26:08Peter Scoones and I thought we could recognise if their behaviour was becoming aggressive.
0:26:19 > 0:26:26It definitely produces a rush of adrenalin when a 12 foot seal comes out of the hazy distance
0:26:26 > 0:26:33and ends up almost taking the entire front of the camera into its mouth.
0:26:33 > 0:26:40You have to feel sorry for the young penguins. They don't stand a chance.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43It's like a cat with a mouse.
0:26:43 > 0:26:49And here I was, the cat owner, being presented with the prey.
0:26:58 > 0:27:03But I shouldn't deny the sheer excitement
0:27:03 > 0:27:08of filming one of Antarctica's top predators.
0:27:08 > 0:27:16This drama is a symbol of Antarctica, and I count myself privileged to have seen it.
0:27:23 > 0:27:30It's still less than a century since the first man set foot on the Antarctic continent.
0:27:30 > 0:27:37Yet today, hundreds of scientists live and work here, winter and summer.
0:27:37 > 0:27:41Increasing numbers of tourists arrive,
0:27:41 > 0:27:49and modern technologies make it increasingly easy for people to survive here.
0:27:49 > 0:27:55Despite all that, there are still very few footsteps in the Antarctic snow.
0:27:55 > 0:28:00Mining has been banned for a further 50 years,
0:28:00 > 0:28:05and the Antarctic Treaty remains relatively effective.
0:28:05 > 0:28:12But Antarctica still remains a remote, lonely and desolate continent.
0:28:12 > 0:28:19A place where it's possible to see the splendours and immensities of the natural world,
0:28:19 > 0:28:27almost exactly as they were long, long before human beings ever arrived on this plant.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31Long may it remain so.
0:28:49 > 0:28:54Subtitles by Wilma Campbell BBC Scotland 1993