Today is a very significant day in the Polar calendar - it is exactly 100 years since Amundsen first reached the South Pole! BAS has a long and great history, and that is so much evident around Rothera. For example, the building my room is in is called Admirals, which is the name of one of the team of dogs that used to be used here. The last dogs left Rothera in 1993, which is not so very long ago. Today I got to try out our sledge, which is almost identical to that used by Nansen in the 1800s. It works remarkably well, and almost every part of it can be repaired very easily. Every trip down here makes history in some way....one of my proposed camp sites is in an area that noone has ever visited, and we know nothing about the rock type there. We can of course see it from satellites, but noone has actually set foot there. Having already had the honour of a place named after me in Antarctica (Johnson Mesa on James Ross Island), I feel a 'Stilwell Peak' (after Roger) coming on!

This morning I drove up the hill with Roger on the skidoos, and practising 'linked travel'. We travelled joined together with rope, with a sledge in between us. This is known as a 'half-unit', and is what we will take out each day we use the skidoos. The sledge carries all the emergency equipment, including small tent, food for 30 days and clothing etc. It is basically enough to enable us to survive for 30 days if we get stuck in bad weather away from our main campsite. Driving with a sledge in between is more tricky than you might think, because the sledge doesn't have any brakes! So that means that the person on the back skidoo (me) has to effectively act as a brake for the sledge when going downhill. Roger seemed impressed I managed it easily - somehow it didn't seem that hard to me, but apparently a lot of people cannot do it all when they first try.

Roger with the Nansen sledge

Our pyramid tent

Tilley lamp (left) and primus stoves

This afternoon we put up our tent to check it over. The photo shows the exact tent I will be camping in - a pyramid, again not very much different from the tents used by Scott! I have also shown a photo of the Tilley lamp and 2 primus stoves - the Tilley provides us with heat and light (not that we'll need the light, because it's light here all the time at the moment), and the primus stoves are what we will use for cooking. They may look old-fashioned, but again they are easy to fix and are robust. They both work off paraffin, and you prime them first with meths. You may be thinking there is an awful lot to this field season without even having got onto the science. You are right! I am exhausted thinking through it all, but I expect once we get into a routine it will be fine. And of course we still have to actually fly to our field area. I think this will not be until the early part of next week now. I just hope we are in by Christmas!




The weather forecast for tomorrow is 45 knot winds and heavy snow....I may struggle to stay upright on my way to breakfast tomorrow!

Now I must get a drink before bed. Good night!