STAVELEY adventurer Leo Houlding bore witness to a spectacular solar display in Antarctica last week.

The solar corona is a plasma gas atmosphere around the sun where temperatures reach two million degrees.

Leo and his team, French climber Jean Burgun and photographer/filmmaker Mark Sedon, were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of one of these 'amazing' displays last Thursday (December 28).

“We’ve seen a few halos around the sun, but yesterday either somebody slipped something into our porridge or we were blessed to witness an utterly psychedelic, three dimensional display of polar sun refraction and reflection," Leo said. "For about half an hour we were overawed by what we were seeing. Photos don’t do it justice - it was truly amazing."

He said that the team were fully geared up to leave all day but the wind direction and strength would not allow them to ski kite the way they wanted.

"Twice we were fully packed and ready to go, but within 100m it became clear that it wasn’t going to happen for us, so twice we re-pitched the tent in exactly the same place," he said. "Then the sky put on its mind blowing rainbow show and we let go of the frustration and wondered at this place we are visiting."

The trio, who earlier in December reached the summit of Spectre, still have 850km to cover before they complete their Antarctic journey.