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...