lateral thinking - What colour was the.... No, there's no damn bears here

Puzzlers of the world were gathering at the PuzzleMania conference-as a special event, celebrities from various fields of endeavour were invited to give their favourite puzzles.

It came to Ed the Explorer's turn:

This one will make you really think. Once, whilst exploring, me and my men headed for 100 units due south, then headed for 100 units due east and then headed for 100 units due north, and we ended up exactly where we had started. How is that possible?

But by then, there was a ripple going around the room. As soon as they had heard the first sentence, there were mutterings...

Oh not that one again-how many times have we heard this? Can't he come up with something original... Bo-ring..

But then Ed had them rather confused by adding on:

It has nothing to do with the North Pole... or poles of any sort... or anything to do with bears of any colour

So then where were Ed and his men and how did they manage to do this?

To address some ideas the puzzlers at the conference had, Ed would like to clarify:

1. They did actually travel the distances stated


2. The distances they traveled were in a straight line so when they went 100 units east, they ended up 100 units east of where they started and didn't just go around in circles.


3. When they had completed the 100 units north, they were back exactly where they started.