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----------------------------------- In the fall of 1959, a very big and very unusual
traveler tackled the world’s weirdest ever road trip, on an 8,500 kilometer journey of
epic proportions. But the traveler wasn’t an explorer - or
even a tourist. The intrepid traveler was a giant
block of ice, weighing in at 3,050kg. First, let’s take a step back. Though the trip was taken in the fall of 1959,
the journey’s inspiration came in the previous summer. During that summer, Radio Luxembourg
challenged any and all comers to transport three tons of ice from the Arctic Circle,
all the way to the mega-hot conditions of the
earth’s equator. The station set two major rules. Firstly, they said that no refrigeration could
be used, making the trip a tricky proposition. The second rule was this - that for every
kilogram of ice that remained upon arrival at
the equator, the challenger would receive 100,000 francs, which equates to around
$16,000 in current currency. If the trip were taken today, the big block
of ice would have been worth around a whopping $48 million at the beginning of the
trip - so anyone willing to attempt the challenge was dealing with a very pricey piece
of ice. Radio Luxembourg of course thought that no-one
would attempt the challenge. Surely it
was an impossible task. Surely no-one could transport a block of ice
all the way from the arctic to the equator without the ice
melting, in a journey that would likely take many
weeks. Or so they thought. One man stepped up and accepted the challenge. This man was Birger Natvik, the
managing director of Norwegian insulation material company Glassvatt. He was
confident that his company’s glass wool insulation could get the job done. If he could make it happen, he could win a
huge amount of money for the company and its employees. In his bid to assemble a team capable of completing
the challenge, Natvik received a lot of attention. Radio Luxembourg heard about Natvik’s ambitions,
and quickly retracted their offer. They were terrified by how much money they
might lose. But Natvik decided to continue with his quest. Though he could no longer win any
money, he and his company could potentially receive a huge amount of publicity. And so the trip was ready to begin. The ice and its entourage were set to travel
all the way from the Norwegian town of Mo i Rana to
Libreville, the modern-day capital of Gabon. The epic journey was set to take the intrepid
explorers through Copenhagen, Hamburg, Brussels, Paris, Algiers, Niger and more,
as the icy block made its way from the world’s coldest region to some of the hottest countries
on the planet. The team was assembled. Natvik handed the job over to Sivert Klevan,
an expert engineer with excellent public relation skills. Joining the team were numerous drivers, a
workshop manager and two film crew. When the trip started getting massive media
attention, many companies came forward to sponsor the journey. In total, sponsors from eight countries financed
the expedition, including Shell, who provided fuel, and Scania,
who provided the truck. Procuring the entire three-ton block of ice
from arctic glaciers in one go seemed an extremely difficult task, so Instead, 200
kg blocks were cut out and airlifted to the starting point. They were then frozen together to form a solid
block of ice weighing 3,050 kg. The ice was placed in a specially constructed
iron container and insulated with wood and 10-inch thick glass wool made from glass
fibre. The truck was also loaded with 300kg of medicines,
to be delivered to the hospital of humanitarian Albert Schweitzer, near the final
destination of Libreville, the capital of Gabon. On February 22nd 1959, the trip began. The European stretch of the journey was relatively
easy, as temperatures were pleasant, roads were good and conditions were
stable. At every big city, crowds would
gather, applaud and watch, as news of the journey spread across the world. And as the
journey gathered pace, so too did the publicity. The team - and the trip - were quickly becoming
very famous. When the team reached Paris, the police escorted
the ice-carrying truck through the city’s busy streets. The crew were even invited to dine with the
mayor of Paris. Upon reaching Marseille, it was time to leave
Europe behind and enter the less hospitable conditions of Africa. For the rest of their journey, the team would
largely be traveling through the scorching hot sands
of the Sahara Desert. In Marseille’s port, the entire truck - with
the ice still loaded upon it - was lifted onto a
boat, which carried the cargo over the ocean. The team - and their icy load - had arrived
in Africa. This African stretch was a very dangerous
part of the journey. Not only was the ice at
risk of melting under the scorching sun, but the truck’s crew were at risk of death. Parts
of the mega-hot, vast, sandy Sahara were involved in war, and many sections were full
of guerilla forces hiding in the mountains. These fighters were a huge threat. They might steal the 300 kilograms of medicines
which the crew were carrying. Or worse, they might capture and kill the
crew in a quest for publicity. Because of these dangers, for some parts of
the desert section, the crew were accompanied by the French Foreign Legion,
who were stationed in the area at the time. The French Foreign Legion instructed the crew
to drive for their lives - and to stop as little as possible. What had started as a fun publicity stunt
had become a fight for survival. But even though the crew wanted to make fast
progress, they were unable to do so. Large stretches of the Sahara had no roads,
so the crew simply had to drive through the sand - and because the truck was so heavy,
it would regularly become trapped in the sand’s depths. Every time this happened, the ice-carrying
team would spend hours digging at the sand to free the truck and its precious cargo. In temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius, with
few resources and the fatal threat of freedom
fighters, it was an insanely dangerous mission. Small sections of the ice were beginning to
melt, threatening to make the journey a complete failure. If the crew got stuck in the sand for a prolonged
period of time, the ice might not survive. During this stretch of the journey, the crew
met a tribe of nomadic Tuareg people, who were riding on the backs of camels. The crew offered water to the nomad’s camels,
by opening up the container which was carrying
the ice. The lucky camels helped
themselves to drinking what was the world’s most expensive water - a precious liquid
which had already traveled thousands of miles from the Nowegian glacier which it once
called its home. As the crew continued through the desert,
they often slept in sleeping bags on the sands of the Sahara, somehow managing to gradually
navigate the terrain and all of its challenges. And they somehow succeeded, as eventually
they left the inhospitable sands behind and crept closer to their final destination
of Gabon. Soon, they eventually - and miraculously - managed
to reach their intended destination. 27 days after they departed, the crew - and
the remaining ice - had reached Libreville. They were safe. They had completed their seemingly-impossible
journey. But how much
ice was left? With trepidation, the block was weighed. And the results were nothing short of a
miracle. Upon leaving Norway, the block had weighed
3,050 kilograms. Now, 27 days
later, right on the line of the sweltering equator, it weighed 2,714 kilograms. Only 336
kilograms of ice had been lost along the way. Only 11% of the ice had disappeared. Though Radio Luxembourg’s initial challenge
- and the financial reward that went with it
- had been revoked, the journey was a success. If the cash reward had still been in
place, the ice would have had a modern-day worth of around $43 million, making it the
world’s most pricey piece of frozen water. The ice - instead of making a huge profit
for the company - was put to an even better use. Though a small amount was flown back home,
most of it was cut up and given to the people of Gabon, who had never before
seen ice. Upon arriving in Libreville, the crew were
invited to attend dinner with French president Charles de Gaulle in Paris - but only if they
would drive back to the French capital. The
exhausted crew refused and decided to fly home instead. The ice which was flown back to Norway was
cut up and used in drinks, which were then served to journalists at the premiere
of the expedition’s documentary. The publicity stunt definitely worked, as
Glassvatt still exists today, under the name Glava AS. 61
years after the awesome expedition, the company is still crafting glass wool for use
as insulation. Based in the town of Askim,
around 1,000 kilometres from where their incredible expedition first began, they employ
upwards of 500 staff.
