Well, after quite a few hours travelling, I finally arrived at Halley at 9am last Wednesday. Unfortunately, that was only one day after the team who had left 3 weeks earlier to set up the Base and living accommodation, so its been all hands to the pump, working late, just to get the site ready for action. The other team came in via South America, and got held up with bad weather at Patriot Hills, whereas we had the easier route via Cape Town. We had a couple of days there, seeing a few sights, getting our kit and attending safety briefings for the flight on the Russian cargo plane. It was pretty basic… Flags to hide the internal workings of the plane and a portaloo at the back. It was baking hot on the plane, but ½ an hour prior to landing we all had to get our Antarctic clothes on for landing at the Russian Base (Novo). We all melted a little bit more, but there’s always a silver lining, and being fairly dehydrated meant I didn’t need to visit the smallest room on the plane.
We were hoping for a look around at Novo, but as we landed on the ice, our next flight was waiting; a mere 20 minutes and we were off again on a Basla to Halley. Since then its been non-stop trying to catch up the time lost by the other team, but once again, nobody really minds… being down here is what really matters.
On the downside, communications is worse than last year: a small iridium dish (128 meg) but I’ll do my best to keep you posted.
No in-flight movies? What about dinner?
Shame Novo was such a quick stop-over so you didn’t get a chance to look around.
Do you get to drive the big crane?
Just saw this – it might help see where Ian is, and has been…
Good to hear you made it i one piece. Nice blue sky, a bit like ’round here… Take care, keep us posted when you can.
You have noooo idea how jealous I am! Have an amazing time & keep safe.