Kingsbridge-based Jonny Huntington has just become the first disabled person to ski solo and unaided to the South Pole.

He covered the 911km of Antarctic tundra with limited mobility down his left-hand side; a feat he completed in 45 days, 14 hours and 15 minutes.

Jonny set off from Fuchs-Messner on the edge of the Antarctic landmass on November 21, Jonny arrived at the South Pole on January 6 at around 5pm (GMT) officially making history.

Jonny explains: “I got into cross-country skiing when I got injured through the military, and so I skied for GB on the Paralympic circuit for a few years.

Jonny continued: “There's not many sort of professional disabled endurance athletes but I've been incredibly fortunate that the sponsors I have seen a value in it and, as a result, I've actually been incredibly well supported.”

What of the South Pole itself?:

“There is definitely a mythology attached to it, even the exploits of Shackleton, Scott, British explorers.

“When I was in hospital, I did a radio interview with Ben Saunders, who is one of Britain's most prolific polar explorers and has done lots of work in the North and South Poles.

“It sowed the seeds.”

“The pole shifts I believe a few centimetres each year and I arrived on January 6 so they had literally just moved the pole slightly and put a new there is a sort of ceremonial sort of brass pole with a beautifully machined topper on it.

“The whole experience of being on Antarctica has been one massive high really I mean it's it's an incredibly unique place it's you know just so different to anywhere I've ever been you know there is nothing lives here, there's no vegetation, there's no trees, no birds, penguins

which I didn't see, but it's an incredibly sort of unique and special experience.

As for lows: “The weather has actually been quite warm, so the snow's been reasonably soft, and when you're pulling significant weight through it is not the best for mobility.

“One of the big aspects of being down here and being on the ice solo for that long is one does become acutely aware of the effects of isolation and loneliness and as someone who suffered some mental health issues when I was injured and recovering I learnt how much the support of my family and friends meant and helped.”

He will be spending a significant amount of time over the next couple of years working with clinicians, working with professionals to figure out how to help people to manage mental health at a practical level on a daily basis.

Jonny concluded: “The whole point of the project was to encourage people to have big ambitions, regardless of how disadvantageous their circumstances may be, and to pursue them with a level of pragmatism and planning to enable them to achieve these dreams.

I hope people look at what I'm doing and take some encouragement from them, because at the end of the day, I'm just some normal bloke from South Devon.”