Follow in the footsteps of Bear Grylls and Prince William on luxury £46,000 Antarctic safari with Patrick Woodhead Patrick Woodhead owns luxury tour company White Desert, taking wealthy guests to the interior of Antarctica Guests arrive by private jet and sleep in spacious heated pods during an eight-day trip Activities include spending the night at the South Pole, visiting Emperor penguins and walking through ice tunnels Woodhead and wife Robyn founded company after completing an 80-day expedition across Antarctica White Desert operates a 'zeroimpact' policy, powering the camp with renewable energy and removing all waste Sleeping next to a 200-foot icefall, walking amongst a colony of 6,000 emperor penguins, and standing at the lowest point on earth... this trip is certainly one for the bucket list. Would-be adventurers with cash to burn can now follow in the footsteps of the great explorers, but with private jet transport, luxury sleeping pods and a personal chef thrown in, they don't need to compromise on comfort. For £46,000 for an eight-day trip, polar explorer Patrick Woodhead takes wealthy clients on luxury safaris to Antarctica and the South Pole with his company White Desert. March of the penguins: For £46,000, wealthy adventurers can take a luxury safari to Antarctica and the South Pole Into the wild: Clients get up close and personal with a colony of 6,000 emperor penguins with the tour company, White Desert Red carpet treatment: Guests are flown by private charter from Cape Town and land on an ice runway Living the high life! Adventurer Patrick Woodhead started White Desert in 2006 VIP visitors: Prince Harry stopped by the camp after his South Pole expedition in 2013, while Bear Grylls has also visited Royal guest: Prince Harry celebrated completing his Walking with the Wounded expedition at the camp Adventure: Bear Grylls launches his paramotor and flies near to a cliff edge during his trip to the White Desert camp Guests have included billionaire entrepreneurs, Jordanian royals and Saudi princesses who had previously never seen snow. Prince Harry stopped by White Desert's 'Whichaway Camp' after completing his South Pole expedition last year. 'While the rest of the team celebrated with champagne, Prince Harry was very abstemious and well behaved,' Patrick, 38, exclusively tells MailOnline Travel. He was really down to earth and chatted with all our staff. Bear Grylls also swapped sleeping rough for a bit of White Desert luxury. The TV adventurer tried kite skiing while visiting the camp. VIP guests arrive by specially chartered private jet from Cape Town, landing on an ice runway in the middle of the Antarctic. Whichaway Camp sits on the edge of a frozen lake overlooking a magnificent 200foot icefall. 268 shares For thrillseekers: Kite-skiing is one of the activities available to guests Adrenaline junkies: White Desert's wealthy clientele can test their limits with extreme winter sports Catching air: Patrick Woodhead pictured kiting during a 1,850km traverse of Antarctica Record breaking: One client broke the world record for the first solo free flight of a balloon in Antarctica during a White Desert trip Arctic excursion: Guests fly for two hours from base camp to reach the penguins at Atka Bay Campsite: White Desert's camp features state of the art pods next to a frozen lake and 200-foot icefall Once in a lifetime: Excursions to walk amongst the Emperor penguins are best November-December when the colony is at its fullest State-of-the-art sleeping pods are made from strong fiberglass panels, insulated and heated inside, and even in high winds, very quiet. Double beds for couples or singles with a privacy screen for solo guests, the pods also have a washing area and toilet. There is a separate pod with showers, and three pods make up the large communal living and dining area. Chef Jenna Viney prepares three meals a day including steaks, seafood, and full English breakfast. White Desert describe the camp as 'furnished in the old world opulence of African safaris'. Adventures during the tour include visiting a colony of 2,000 emperor penguins at Atka Bay and treks to iridescent blue ice tunnels. There is abseiling, kite-skiing and rock climbing too, for those who wish to push their limits. Inquisitive: The penguins are unafraid of humans and often approach visitors - allowing incredible photography opportunities Exploration: Activities from camp include walking through ice tunnels Unforgettable: The incredible experiences make a polar safari a firm bucket list item - if you can afford it Then, there is of course the seven-hour flight to the geographic South Pole, where the plane lands at the Amundsen-Scott American science station. Guests spend the night in special tents at the South Pole, take a tour of the station, and even send postcards from the souvenir shop. Woodhead came up with the idea while stuck in a small tent for four days during a snowstorm. He recalls that as the supplies dwindled, Patrick and his teammates discussed how most people never get to see the interior of Antarctica. 'We were sitting in a tent during the long expedition and dreaming about some decent food,' he says. We joked about having a chef and it got me thinking whether you could have a luxury experience in the interior of Antarctica. Normally, the only way to do a luxury trip down here is by cruise ship and they just touch on the coast of Antarctica for a few hours before zodiacing the clients back to the safety of their cabins. Comfort: Inside the spacious living area pods, guests are served meals by a first class chef Fine dining: Chef Jenna Viney serves steak, seafood, full English breakfast and al fresco champagne lunches We wanted to create something more authentic and have a luxury camp in the deep field. A place where clients could experience what a polar explorer saw - the incredible beauty and solitude...but not have to go through months on the ice and skiing the equivalent in calories of a double marathon a day. White Desert are committed to their 'zeroimpact' policy and operate in accordance with the environmental tourism guidelines laid out in the Antarctic Treaty. The camp is powered by renewable energy, using solar panels for electrical supply and solar water heaters for the shower system. White Desert also offsets all emissions through Carbon projects. The dream that came out of that cramped, cold tent became a reality when Patrick founded White Desert with his South African wife Robyn, 36, in 2006. Both keen polar adventurers, the couple achieved what Sir Ernest Shackleton could not, leading two separate teams from opposite sides of Antarctica to meet at the geographic South Pole in 2005. Spacious: Heated sleeping pods boast washing areas and toilets and beds with fur blankets VIP arrival: Guests have included everyone from billionaire entrepreneurs and Saudi princesses Luxury: Every comfort is catered to, including the private jet transfer from Cape Town Raising thousands of pounds for The Princes Trust charity, the couple and their teams spent 80 days traversing the continent, enduring temperatures as low as -70 C. A novelist as well as an adventurer, Woodhead uses many of his exhilarating real-life experiences as fodder for his storylines. Following his preivous books The Secret Chamber and The Forbidden Temple, Woodhead will release his latest, Beneath the Ice, in December. The book borrows one harrowing chapter in which an expedition team becomes trapped down a crevasse and the gruelling rescue, from his own pre-White Desert experiences. 'On one occasion whilst doing our 1850km traverse of Antarctica by kites one of the team, David de Rothschild, fell into a crevasse that must have been about 800m deep,' Patrick recalls. He had broken through the surface snow covering the crevasse but managed to keep his arms wide and stop himself from plummeting into the depths. 'We couldn't see or hear that he was in trouble because of the blizzard and so David had to crawl forward across the thin layer of snow spanning the crevasse and crawl his way back to the safety of the other side. It was seriously close. Beneath The Ice will be published by Random House in December. Departure to the ends of the earth: The chartered flight takes off for Antarctica Epic journey: A seven-hour flight from base camp takes guests to the South Pole View from above: The aerial views, including this one of Wolf's Fang Mountain, during the flight to the South Pole are spectacular Remote: Guests get to stand on the lowest point on earth... and send a postcard from Amundsen-Scott American science station Off-piste: Skiing is not like the average weekender in France as guests ski beneath the isolate and towering Holtanna Mountain Adventurers: Patrick and wife Robyn led two teams on an 80-day expedition across Antarctica in 2005 Incredible experiences: Robyn Whitehead pictured during a trek through a maze of ice tunnels on one excursion Art imitates life: Patrick (pictured with Robyn) is also a novelist and uses his real-life experiences as inspiration for his novels