Blogs from Antarctica - page 56

Wow. What a trip. If you have ever wondered what it would be like to go to Antarctica, I just recommend you do it. It has been the most amazing time. Everything is bigger, better and brighter than I ever imagined. A truly awesome experience being surrounded by ice and mountains that served to remind me of just how small I am in the big wide world. Internet time is limited so I´m just going to go ahead and list my Top 5 experiences. 1 Having a humpback whale swim under me when I was out kayaking by myself 2 Watching a leopard seal hunt a crabeater seal (admittedly I did have my eyes shut for a bit of it as I was a bit scared for the poor crabeater seal, he got away thankfully...) 3 ... read more

This morning I got up in time for breakfast and got a good start to my day. I met Jason, who is the winterover science support tech at pole, at his office at 8:00 to plan for the day. We decided we would prep the site in the morning and hope that cargo would have time to bring the Thermos Flask Box out to the site in the afternoon. We walked over to Cargo and talked with Webster about bringing the flask out in the afternoon. We Borrowed a banana sled and a couple of shovels. Jason offered to pull the sled which was great because today is my second day here at Pole and I have not acclimatized yet. It is -52F out today with windchill, and Im surprised at how long I can work ... read more

I am writing from a C-131 Hercules Ski-plane having just departed McMurdo Station at 1000. We are headed to South Pole Station with 13 souls on board. I left San Francisco on Saturday Jan 27th headed for LAX on a 1650 flight. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to pack very lightly for this trip. I have a travel backpack, laptop case, 2 Pelican cases, one filled with 50lbs of tools, the other with a professional HDV camera setup. I arrived into Auckland on Jan 29th at around 0600 am. After clearing customs and receiving my 9 month New Zealand visitors permit, I collected my belongings at baggage carousel 5 and walked my way over to the domestic terminal for my flight to Christchurch on the South Island. The flight from Auckland to Christchurch is really quick and ... read more

This week has been absolutely mental in all respects of the word out here on the lovely Island of Adelaide. As I mentioned in a few of my previous updates, HRH The Princess Royal, or Annie to me now, arrived for 3 days of fun and games around the peninsular along with her husband Admiral Lawrence and a few other VVIPs including the Director of British Antarctic Survey, Prof Chris Rapley. Annie also brought along her personal security guard to ward off unwarranted Adele Penguins or Leopard Seal attacks while she underwent her stroll around the peninsular. As ever, the Morrison’s team here carried on, regardless of the fact the entourage where passing by the worksite on another jolly, just as someone screamed “Oh for f***s sake!!!” as another job went a bit tits up. Welcome ... read more

Arrived late Friday 22nd December in Ushuaia from Puerto Natales, another long bus journey with another border crossing this time being the third time entering Argentina. Had to get a ferry as well because Ushuaia is on an Island, Tierra del Fuego or Land of Fire. We hurried out of Puerto Natales so as not to be stuck there for Christmas and although we didnt know what to expect in Ushuaia, we were pleasantly surprised. It´s a main port serving many cruise ships, but the town is small enough not to be too impersonal and large enough to have everything you want and with snow-capped mountains as the backdrop, it was a nice place to spend Christmas. Christmas day and we had met an English guy travelling on his own, we had also met up with ... read more