Nearly off!

This will probably be my last post before I head off into the field tomorrow, or possibly on Wednesday (weather dependent). We are really busy preparing for departure now, which basically involves moving our stuff to the aircraft hangar ready to be loaded onto the Twin Otter planes. We will have three flights to take all our stuff to our field site. And on route we will stop at Fossil Bluff, on Alexander Island, for refuelling the aircraft. This means we need good weather at Rothera (for take off), Fossil Bluff (for landing and take off) and on the Lassiter Coast (for landing at my field site). In this part of the world, this is quite a big ask because the weather changes so rapidly and can vary a lot between different sites even if they are quite close together.

Two days ago I went out skiing on some touring skis, which was lovely. Here is a photo to whet your appetite:

In case you are wondering what I have in my front pocket, it is a VHF radio for contacting the base in case of emergency. I was out on my own, in an area that is known to be free of crevasses (otherwise I would not have been allowed out alone).

So from now on, I will not be able to post any more photos to this site until I return to Rothera at the end of January. All my communications with the outside world will be via radio, or satellite phone. Each night Roger and I will have a radio sched with Rothera, so that they know we are safe and well. We will also chat about interesting things that have happened and get the weather forecast for the next day. But mostly we will be doing our work without being interrupted by anything but the weather.....I am looking forward to it!

Have a wonderful Christmas! (we have managed to snaffle two duck breasts from the kitchen here for our Christmas dinner)