Polar explorer in from the cold.

(From The Nation (Thailand))

Byline: The Nation.

Adventurers pay tribute to Sir Wally Herbert, 71, his record achievement

marked by a special event

On April 7, 1909 the American explorer Robert Peary, nine months into an exhausting Arctic expedition, recorded an ecstatic entry in his diary" "The Pole at last! The prize of three centuries, my dream and ambition for 23 years! Mine at last...."

It was not, however, his. Unhappily, he was still some distance from the geographic North Pole, and so had not, as he claimed, just become the first man to walk to the top of the Earth. Though the American's achievement has been in doubt almost since he returned from his expedition - and …