Finally… a moment to sit down and write what I’ve been up to
in the last couple of weeks. After all the build up over the past months it was
time to get my stuff together and go. With lots of help from my family I
managed to sort my last bits out and get packed. They’ve had a lot to put up
with me this year so I should just say a HUGE thank you here!! With the very
difficult goodbyes done, I met up with some fellow BAS folk and we set off on
our long journey.
First it was Heathrow to Madrid with a few hours to wait
there before catching our next flight to Santiago, Chile. From there we headed
to Punta Arenas, briefly stopping at …… to offload some passengers and pick up
some more. The journey to Punta came with some amazing views of the Andes and
massive glaciers and fjords. A night in
Punta allowed us to go and get some good food (after the plane food muck!), a
couple of Pisco sours, a visit to the sky bar and a little stretch of the legs,
not to mention a good night’s sleep.
The next morning saw us heading straight back to the airport
for our flight to Rothera. The weather was pretty good most of the way and we
landed just time for dinner. It was good to catch up with some people from the
field course who are either there for the full winter or just the summer
season. We ended up having a full extra day due to weather disrupting our
onward journey. To fill our time we went down a crevasse, snowboarded and went
penguin spotting! Not bad!
And the next day we were off. I flew in the co-pilot seat
for the first leg of the journey to Fossil Bluff. Here we had a fuel stop and a
toilet break – consisting of a visit to the pee-pole…it is what it is. This is how it’s done out in the field here.
Consequently it was probably the nicest view from a “toilet” I’d ever seen (if
you wanted to know). From there it was on to the Three Ronnies Depot for
another refuel and pole visit, where it also suddenly felt a lot colder! And
then it was back in the plane to head to Halley. We had a great view as we
approached the ice shelf and flew directly over the Emperor Penguin colony at
Windy Bay! What a treat! A short while later we finally viewed Halley for the
first time, - surrounded by miles and
miles of ice.
A very long journey! We arrived pretty knackered and with
heads spinning to a warm welcome from out colleagues here, and again – in time
for dinner! We had the next day to settle in and explore the crazy place a bit
before getting to work. I’ll stop there for now. Enough for one post I
think. The next one can tell you more
about my time here so far and our first trip away from base!....
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