Pen Hadow is now back at home with his family in Devon

The 41-year-old explorer spent his first day back at his granite-built house on Wednesday after becoming the first person to reach the geographic North Pole unsupported from Canada.

He fulfilled a 15 year dream, a 478 mile, 64 day trek, on 19 May, then had to wait eight days for the right weather so he could be airlifted out.

As soon as he reached his Polar destination, he sent out "loud and clear" the first meal menu he wanted to eat at home with wife Mary and children Wilf, four, and Freya, one.

I had put to so much into reaching the Pole I had blown all my fuses Pen Hadow

"And I got exactly what I asked for," said Mr Hadow, who lost two stone hauling a sledge - nicknamed Baskers after his dog - of supplies and equipment which weighed 150 kilos at the start.

Throughout his journey he was fuelled by a 5,500 calorie- a-day diet which included chocolate drops, nuts, salami, beef stew and curry.

He made such good time that towards the end he was able to eat extra rations but the delayed pickup meant he had virtually nothing left and he "dreamed about food".

But he insisted he was never in danger, saying that a food drop could have been made if he had needed it.

Pen Hadow was stranded for eight days in bad weather

Surrounded by cards from well-wishers, all dwarfed by an unopened bottle of champagne, Mr Hadow told how his children gave him a badge which said: "I done it and I done it good."

He said he felt "inexpressible relief" when he reached the Pole.

"A project I had been working on for 15 years was done," he said.

"I also had a tearful moment thinking about my father Nigel.

"He was a force which was driving me along at times."

Numbing temperatures

Once at the Pole he was happy to lie in his tent in "limbo" once had had prepared a landing strip for the aircraft.

"I had put to so much into reaching the Pole I had blown all my fuses," he said.

He plans to announce details of his next project in around a month's time but it will not be a solo adventure.

The explorer braved numbing temperatures, swam in the freezing sea, and negotiated huge pressure ridges during his journey across the moving Arctic ocean which he ended on foot after losing a ski.