Explorers finally complete Captain Scott's tragic trek to South Pole

Royal Navy Officer Captain Scott (above) died along with his crew returning from the South Pole. Credit: Daybreak/ITV

Two explorers have walked straight into the record books after completing an epic trek from the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole then back again.

36-year-old Ben Saunders and teammate Tarka L'Herpiniere are the first people to complete Captain Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole, in which Scott and his four crew members all perished.

Ben told Daybreak part of the inspiration behind the trek had been the poignant memory of Captain Scott's last journey, and that "no one had finished it yet".

The two ment set out from Scotts Terra Nova Hut on 25 October last year and braced temperatures of -46C windchill.

The journey took 110 days, hauling up to 200kg of weight in their sleds and covering on average16 miles (25 kms) per day.

Tarka admitted they had both come close to calling it quits, but their goal was "always just about achievable, so you could never quite give up".

Both men had to consume 6,000 calories a day, stopping every 90 minutes to eat energy bars, chocolate and freeze-dried meals to survive.

The "relentless" bad weather made for an exhausting 1,795 mile trek, with the explorers walking constantly into the wind.

Ben, who became the youngest person to walk solo to the North Pole in 2004 at the age of 26, said he was now having his "Steve Redgrave moment" and never wanted to see a sledge harness again.