'It's a brutal environment' - Devon explorer nears the end of his Antarctic expedition

Jonny suffered a stroke 10 years ago that left him with permanent brain damage and a severe weakness on his left side. Credit: Steve Jones

A Devon man is nearing the end of his mission to be the first disabled solo skier to the South Pole.

Jonny Huntington, from Kingsbridge, suffered a stroke in 2014 which left him with a significant lack of mobility and control on the left side of his body.

Jonny has been skiing for over 40 days, and has been regularly travelling distances of over 20km daily - raising money for charity.

Jonny has been experiencing 24 hour sunlight and freezing temperatures in Antartica Credit: Jonny Huntington

Speaking from Antartica on Tuesday 31 December, the former British Army officer told ITV West Country of the mental ups and downs he has experienced on his trip.

He said: "Although you are alone doing this, you are not actually feeling lonely. There is a significant difference there. I'm not travelling with that feeling of true isolation.

"At the minute I'm in a fortunate position where I'm in spitting distance of the Pole - so, in and out of itself, that's a pretty good motivator."

"You do get that difficult second and third quarter where you feel removed from things and that it isn't close. One of the big challenges in doing this was just cracking through that.

"There are points in which you do get this sense of desperation of 'when is this going to finish?'

"But I think that's when the mental listening comes in when you keep putting one foot in front of the other, keep cracking on, on a daily basis, looking at the distance to go and watching it slowly come down and just look at it in terms of 'this is what we trained for, this is what we prepared for'.

"You just have to grit your teeth and get on with it."

Huntington has been updating followers on his journey through social media. Credit: Jonny Huntington

Jonny's entire journey is over 900km long - he has had to drag 110kg worth of kit and told ITV West Country that he has learnt many lessons throughout the challenge.

"I'm slightly behind schedule in terms of what I hoped for originally. But originally, I was very naive. I didn't know what it would be like. I'm happy that I'm slightly behind schedule - it is very much is what it is.

Jonny said his trip has been "proceeding without too many hiccups" but he has been experiencing some physical strain.

"The reality is, I'm here with one side of my body not working properly. 40 days already of trekking through pretty turgid snow. It is putting significant strain on the one leg that does work. I'm holding that together and taking painkillers which helps everything ease up a little bit.

"I'm certainly in a position where it affects my physical state. It is Antartica and it's a brutal environment and you don't know always what it is going to do. There's no element of counting on chickens. I know this is going to be a test. All I can do is what I have been doing previously, doing my best and cracking on.

"People can follow my progress on my website. There is a live tracker and an audio diary I've been putting out every day. They can follow along and see what I've been doing everyday."

Jonny told ITV West Country that he hopes to reach the Pole in "five or six days". You can find his fundraiser here.