You will probably have gathered from my relative silence these past few days that we are now in the field! The weather improved enough on Wednesday 21st for us to have 2 input flights in the Twin Otter aircraft from Rothera to my field area on the Lassiter Coast. The third flight followed yesterday, when we also had good weather. Our exact location is 74 deg 29.34’ S / 62 deg 38.67’ W, and we are about 1010 m above sea level. We were lucky with the weather, because today (Friday) we have been experiencing strong winds (25 knots) and lots of drifting snow, and it’s -10 degrees C outside. The contrast between today and yesterday is incredible – we were sitting outside drinking cups of tea with the pilots yesterday after the plane landed, and now we are struggling to see further than our sledges only about 15 m away.
The flight was O.K., but it made me feel a bit sick flying in such a small plane, and it was quite stressful having to choose where to land. It was also cloudy most of the way! But it was incredible to see the planes landing on skis next to our camp, and they did a low fly-by on the way out. We had to piste a skiway for them to ease their landing, which we did by driving a skidoo up and down in lines to beat down the snow. Because it is quite cold here, the snow is hard on top but very soft and powdery underneath.
We have a lovely view (when we can see it) of what I have called the ‘lower Guettard Range’. Only a few peaks here actually have a name. In fact, I thought no one had ever been here before, but when we flew in, we saw a shipping container and some fuel drums on a small flat rock outcrop not far from here. We are finding out some more information, but clearly we are not the first to come here! Roger and I will go and check out the container when we get a chance – it will be interesting to see what’s inside, although Roger says he thinks I should go in first in case there is a corpse in it....I don’t think that is likely but it’s certainly very curious.
I am thinking of you all getting ready for Christmas, and travelling to see various family and friends. Judging by the weather forecast here (bad for tomorrow but improving later), I think we will be working on Christmas Day. It will hopefully be a very memorable one for me, and I hope for you too.
Lots of love to you all
Jo
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