Home!

I am home! The journey was really long and really dull, but it is so nice to be back. Robert and Phoebe met me at the airport which was lovely, and I enjoyed eating fruit and chocolate cake in the car on the way home. I have missed fruit a lot. Phoebe is very happy to see me, and was excited to show me her Christmas presents and to open mine (!). She was smaller than I remembered, and more articulate. Also her drawing has improved massively and she can now draw people that actually look like people!

It is odd that it is snowy here. But nice not to need to cover myself in suncream every time I go out. I have noticed things like the birds singing, and am looking forward to going to the supermarket. Spending money is a strange concept too - I didn't have to delve into my wallet at all whilst I was away. Now I have to face a massive pile of washing (not mine, but what has stacked up over the last few weeks) and some washing up from last night. Antarctica seems a very distant memory now, even though I was there only 5 days ago....

This will be my last post on here, so thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it and learned lots of things. I enjoyed updating it, and want to thank Francois for his assistance when I had a very limited email connection.

Departure

The time has nearly come for me to leave Antarctica. I fly out of Rothera on the Dash-7 tomorrow morning, and then get the commercial flight from Punta Arenas at 5am on Tuesday morning. It is going to be a very very long journey (getting to Heathrow on Wednesday morning), and that is quite daunting. With the added prospect of getting stuck because of snow in the UK, I can't say I'm looking forward to it. This last week at Rothera has been great - it's been nice to have time to relax with friends and to get a little bit of work done, as well as getting out to enjoy the outdoors. Unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse after I went to the island, so we've had lots of snow and poor visibility ever since. I didn't make it back there for the weekend, as we had planned.

I have spent much of the last two days doing household chores and helping with cooking. We all have to take a turn at 'gash' which involves spending the day emptying bins, washing up (I did 8 loads, which was mind-numbing) and cleaning toilets. On Fridays we have 'scrub out' at 5pm, where we all have a job to do to keep the base clean. I had to help clean the bar - which wasn't too bad. I pity the person having to do cleaning today after a Saturday night!

I will be sad to leave tomorrow, but I am ready to go home. It's just that I don't know if I'll come back to Antarctica again, and it's such an evocative and beautiful place that that's a sad thought. But then I suppose not many of you have been or ever will, so I am also struck by how fortunate I am....

It would be really nice to know who is reading this blog, so it would be great if you can all add your name and location in a comment.

See you on the other side of the world in a few days time! I can't wait :)
Jo xx

Need I say more?

Islands

Relaxing on Lagoon Island

Today I was very lucky to be able to take a day off work to go on a boat trip. I went to Lagoon and Anchorage Islands, which are only a few kilometres away from base. It was really fantastic going in the boat, riding through the ice and out into the open water. Lagoon Island has a lovely old-fashioned hut on it, and on Saturday night I am going to stay overnight there with some of my colleagues. The islands both have elephant and fur seals living on them, and lots of birds. I went with a scientist who is looking at springtails and mites - two invertebrate groups which live in melt pools and mosses here. We didn't do much work - it was more of a look and see trip, and for me a time to relax and enjoy the stunning scenery here. I loved it! Here are some pictures- I hope they convey a little of the beauty of this place, and the peace that is to be found on these quiet (except for the elephant seal growls) islands.

On the boat

The refuge on Lagoon Island

Elephant seal

Back at Rothera

Jo with skidoo

Our first campsite

You have probably guessed by now that I am back at Rothera! I arrived at midnight on Friday, after a really long day waiting for the planes and watching the weather deteriorating rapidly. It was a bit too exciting for my taste....we heard the planes but couldn't see them, because there was a lot of low cloud around our campsite. Then eventually they descended through the clouds and I breathed a sigh of relief. But it was not over! They landed O.K., and we packed up both planes with all our gear. This took quite along time because we had two skidoos and three large sledges, as well as 2 tents and all our other gear. Then the first plane tried to take off, bounced down the skiway in a very alarming fashion (pitching nose to tail all the way) and tried but failed to take off at least 3 times. It was horrible to watch, especially knowing I was going to have to do the same in a few minutes! In the end the pilot decided to take out some of the load, and we had to leave a depot of equipment at the site. If the skiway had been less bumpy, and my rocks lighter, the plane could probably have got off the ground with no problem. Anyway, then it was our turn. I was a bit more optimistic because our pilot is very experienced indeed, and seemed quite confident he could do it. But he said we needed to hold on tight because it would be bouncy driving down the skiway. I held onto the seat, shut my eyes and concentrated on wiggling my toes, whilst praying we would get out alive. I heard the sound of the engines change, and Roger tapped me on the shoulder only seconds later to say we were airborne, and I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief. Finally we were out of there! The rest of the journey was uneventful. I got to be co-pilot on the second leg from Fossil Bluff, and it was beautiful because by this time it was 10pm and the sun was going down. The light on the mountains was very pretty.

A Twin Otter flying to our first campsite

When we arrived at Rothera, it was really quite dark, and I couldn't see much because I only had my sunglasses with me! We managed to find some food when we got back, and then I had a very quick shower (nice) and fell into bed. It was 2am. Since then I have been very much enjoying relaxing, chatting to other people, and eating food I have not had to cook myself and that is not highly processed. It also does not make me fart! It is the weekend here, and so there is no great emphasis to get on with any work. I wanted to go skiing today but the weather is not great (cloudy and snowy), but I am lining myself up for a little boating trip later this week and hope I can get out for some exercise at some point. I saw lots of seals and penguins last night, and 2 humpback whales in the bay during coffee time today. Other than that, I am packing cargo and helping out other people with their work if I can. It's a very nice change, and a very nice slow introduction to the real world again. I fly out of here on 6th February. I am looking forward to it now it seems so close. The mountains, sledges and tent are already quite a distant memory - but one, of course, that I shall cherish. As my field assistant commented one day, even money couldn't pay for a trip like we had. I basically said where I wanted to go, and we went there! Private expeditions cannot do that :)

Sledging across Johnston Glacier

Not such nice weather - Echo uplift in nil contrast

Oh and I weighed myself again - verdict 60kg with my heavy boots. I reckon that means I have not gained or lost any weight (it was 59kg before I went away), or alternatively that I have gained 1kg in muscle!

P.S. I am no longer using my field party email account, so you can now contact me on my gmail account.

Homeward bound....soon

Message from "Sledge Echo" - 26/01/2012:

The weather here is worse today than yesterday, with fog almost all around our tent and light snow. It is not pleasant! We were told by Rothera this morning that they want to uplift us as soon as possible. So that officially marks the end of my work here, and now we are all bent on trying to get back to the base as soon as the weather allows. Since we have done all our preparation for this already, today has been mostly spent lounging in the tent getting bored. I really hope we leave tomorrow because I will be going slightly mad if we have to have a 4th day in the tent (today is the 3rd), and we could potentially be waiting for even longer than that. We are pacing ourselves with cups of tea! It is quite a contrast to how I feel back at home though - there I hardly have a minute to think, whereas here I have a lot of time to think, and more than I would like. The grass is always greener on the other side as they say.

Once back at Rothera I will be busy sorting out all my gear for return to the UK on the ship. That will involve weighing and packing everything correctly, and writing Bills of Lading for every item to be sent back. It is time-consuming and fairly mind numbing. Before we left Roger weighed us both, to see whether we have gained, lost or stayed the same weight during the season. I left as 59kg, and I will try to remember to tell you the answer when I get back! I don't feel like I've lost weight, and I've certainly been eating lots of fatty food! But it has also been at least as cold as -10C most days, and down to -15C on occasion, so I expect I've burnt some of that keeping warm.

I'll keep you posted...

Still here!

Message from "Sledge Echo" - 25/01/2012:

We are still at Mt Light, despite having glorious weather again today. It is frustrating, and now I am pretty much sure we will not get moved to the Latady Mts, but will instead go straight back to Rothera as soon as the weather allows. But anything can happen! So not much to report today. I have enjoyed reading my book and listening to music, and with this fabulous backdrop of scenery the music takes on so much more character and emotion. It was even warm enough to sit outside and read my book with my sunhat on today! It is going to be very strange going home and finding it dark in the early evening and at night. We have had some sunsets of sorts, although the sun is not actually going down much at all - it just seems that the light gets reflected by clouds, and takes on an orange colour. It definitely feels like the days are shortening but the sun is still high in the sky all the time.

Anyway, I will leave it here because I don't have much else to say right now. Watch this space for my movements (or not) these next few days!