Tom Avery's family are used to waiting. They waited two years while he prepared and trained for his 413-mile trek to the North Pole.

Then they waited 36 days, 11 hours and 22 minutes as he trudged through the ice and snow battling temperatures as low as minus 43C in one of the most inhospitable environments on the planet.

But somehow the 30-minute wait between Tom stepping off flight AC888 from Ottawa, Canada, and into the arms of his girlfriend in Heathrow arrivals lounge is the most agonising yet.

Eventually he emerges amid a throng of holidaymakers, unmistakable in the scarlet, fur-trimmed jacket.

Tom's mother, Quenelda Avery, is surprised not to see one of the 16 Canadian Inuit dogs which helped pull her son to the pole, peeking out the top of his bag, while his brother, Leo, 24, and sister Jessica, 26, look bemused by the attention he is getting.

But what the 29-year-old from Ticehurst, near Robertsbridge, has achieved is no mean feat.

He set out more than two months ago, heading a team of five, with the aim of matching Commander Robert Peary's disputed 37-day journey to the North Pole.

The team recreated the American explorer's original journey and navigated using the sun and a compass, taking global positioning readings at the end of each day to confirm the distance covered.

Controversy had surrounded the 1909 expedition, with many sceptics claiming Peary's sprint finish, which covered 150 miles in five days, would have been impossible.

The fastest recorded time since Peary was 42 days while the average time for the journey is 60 to 70 days.

Whether Tom matched the record or not he would have returned a hero.

But he returns having slashed five hours off Peary's time.

As he encounters the comparatively warm climate, beads of sweat trickle down his weather-beaten face.

He phoned his girlfriend, Mary Hope, 29, the moment his plane landed telling her the temperature in England was positively tropical.

But he has plenty of time to get used to it and begin to regain some of the feeling in his fingers, toes and nose which was lost during the expedition.

He has no firm plans but does hint that scaling Mount Everest may be his next challenge.

But what he is most looking forward to is not the fame, publicity or celebrity status which has been thrust on him but the simple pleasures in life.

He cannot wait to tuck into a slice of toast and marmite, followed closely by watching Brighton and Hove Albion fight to keep their place in the Championship when they face Ipswich on Sunday.

He said: "We received text message updates of all the Brighton games. One of the most difficult times for me was when they slipped into the relegation zone."

The idea to take on the North Pole challenge, Tom's biggest yet, came two years ago after he and Andrew Gerber made it to the South Pole in record time using kites to power them across the last 47 miles of ice in 31 hours.

Tom said: "Having done the South Pole I wanted a fresh challenge and there was only one other pole to go for.

"There was a lot of mystery around Peary's trip so we set about trying to recreate what he had done to see if it really would have been possible.

"We used Canadian Inuit dogs and wooden sledges - very few expeditions still travel in that style and it was like going back to the heroic age of polar exploration.

"Having reached the pole I firmly believe Peary could have done it. This is just as much about showing people that as it is about breaking the record."

Together with Tom were 29-year-old management consultant Andrew Gerber, 28-year-old property developer George Wells, American Matty McNair, who led the first women's expedition to the North Pole in 1997, and teacher and dog-sledger Hugh Dale-Harris, 32.

Breaking the record didn't come easily. The team faced 30ft walls of solid ice, rivers of water opening up in front of their feet and the constant threat of polar bears.

Tom said: "There were difficulties but I never wanted to be anywhere else. I had worked too hard to ever want to abandon it.

"I knew there were going to be difficult times but you just have to keep going and stick it out. There were lots of good times as well.

"At the time we started it was the end of the Arctic winter and the temperature was about minus 40C.

"That dropped to minus 48C with the wind-chill factor.

"You have to go at that time of year because you need the ground to be as firm as possible. Global warming is having a huge impact on the ice pack out there and it is extremely thin and fragile. The ice is breaking up earlier and earlier so there is only a very small window.

"I am usually quite good in the cold but you have got to take great care. As soon as you feel your fingers going numb you have to stop.

"It is really dangerous to ignore it and carry on putting up the tent or feeding the dogs. If you do that you will get frostbite, which is exactly what we wanted to avoid.

"There was one day when the ice conditions were very difficult. We had travelled three miles in the day and overnight we drifted five. That was very demoralising.

"Sometimes we felt the Inuit goddess Sedna was cursing us but other times she was looking down on us."

Towards the end of the expedition the team realised the world record was within their grasp but as they trekked across the snowy terrain, luck was not on their side.

One night they drifted nine miles from their goal, leaving another 30-odd miles in front of them.

"When we were about two miles from the pole, a lead - a river which opens up suddenly in the ice - appeared. Sometimes they stretch for miles and there's nothing you can do apart from retrace your steps and find a way around it.

"There was a thin walkway but the ice was only two or three inches thick and one of the dogs went in so we couldn't cross it there. It would have been so disheartening to have had the record slip away just then."

In the two months he has been away Tom has lost a stone-and-a-half in weight.

He lived on a diet of freeze-dried food high in fat, supplemented by salami, nuts, cheese and Easter eggs, packed by Tom's mother and eaten on Easter Sunday.

Without a doubt Tom's favourite part of the expedition was working with the dogs.

He said: "They were just amazing. They are the most incredible animals and the bond we had with them was so special."

With constant daylight the team worked on a 30-hour cycle with seven hours for sleeping and 13 for walking. The rest of the time was spent preparing a camp and eating.

They phoned home as often as possible while family and friends logged onto the team's web site for a daily update of their progress.

Tom said: "I am getting used to being away but it was the first time I have been on an expedition since meeting Mary so I am not sure what it was like for her.

"I have neglected my family so I am going to spend the next few weeks just relaxing and spending time with everyone."

But Tom will always have his memories of the expedition.

He said: "The landscape was absolutely stunning. There were all these blues and greens and whites - I feel very privileged to have been there. I am extremely lucky. In the next ten years because of global warming someone else might not be able to do what we have done."