This weekend is the final chance to catch an exhibition which captures the bitter reality of daily life in the Arctic.

Sevenoaks-born explorer Felicity Aston made the 36,000km journey from the UK, across Scandinavia, to the north east of Siberia, the coldest inhabited place on the planet.

Thirty five photographs make up the Pole of Cold exhibition at Chatham Historic Dockyard, revealing Felicity’s arduous journey and the extraordinary people she met including a shaman, reindeer nomads and the Lord Keeper of the Cold who is responsible in Yakutian mythology for distributing the winter around the world.

The family friendly exhibition has immersive elements too. Visitors can try on Inuit snow goggles, listen to the melodic sounds of joiking – a traditional Sami form of song, or design their own polar clothing in a recreated Siberian house.

ALSO AT THE EXHIBITION

The Pole of Cold expedition photographs at the dockyard are complemented by a number of archival prints on loan from the National Maritime Museum exploring historic arctic explorations in the 1850s and 1870s. They including a rare photograph of the Victorian steam ship HMS Phoenix – the first steam paddle sloop to be built at Chatham in 1832.

FELICITY'S JOURNEY

“Along the way we met some astonishing people and discovered something of their lives. I wanted to know how they thought about winter, when winter means temperatures as low as -60C. Did they dread it or did they have reasons to welcome the extreme season?

“I find the extreme cold fascinating and I’m passionate about sharing that fascination with others. We don’t just experience a place with our eyes – we hear it, we feel it – so what we have worked hard to create in this exhibition is an opportunity to experience the coldest inhabited places on earth in all those different ways.” Felicity Aston MBE

DETAILS

Pole of Cold runs until Sunday, November 27. Entry to the exhibition is included in Chatham Historic Dockyard admission ticket. For details go to thedockyard.co.uk