Good old Murphy

So we arrived in McMurdo base (where we are now) on the 14th of December. We were only here in order to do the training and safety courses so that we could go to the Pole and to Ridge A, and were scheduled to fly out on the 20th. In general, the weather is fairly chancy, and for a flight to go ahead, it has to be good at three places - where you start, where you finish, and a backup landing strip somewhere else.

We are scientists, which means that we are low priority. Which is entirely fair enough.. how many scientists do you know that could happily keep an isolated base in the Antarctic running smoothly? So we got  bumped from our 20th flight, to the 21st. The 21st flight then got cancelled (bad weather at the pole), and we were then made the backup flight for the 22nd. Keep in mind that each day involves stripping your bed, and carting all of your crap up to the busstop by 6.45am). This is a bit annoying, but fairly par for the course, so it's not a big deal.

We were the backup flight on the 22nd and 23rd, which means that if one of the other scheduled flights can't fly, for whatever reason, then we get to go. On the 22nd that meant we couldn't really do much til the evening because you get told 'check in two hours'... starting at 6am. On the 23rd, it started off well.. with my roommates flight being cancelled... so we had half a chance.. I think around 9am, we all got a phone call saying 'your flight's been activated, you need to be here in 15 minutes'.. most of us were asleep at that point I think, but I think we probably set a record for the 200m sprint carrying all your crap event. We made it to the airport, and onto the plane (A C130, for those interested parties). We apparently made it through the pre-flight check, because the plane started taxi-ing (??) up to the runway.. and then turned around and came back.. a part of the navigation system wasn't working. After about an hour and a half of waiting, we found out the part had to be driven in from town, and would be about an hour. After another hour or so, we found that the truck carrying the part had broken down on the way in, and after some more waiting, during which the part had actually arrived, we found out that the airforce crew of our plane had exceeded their working hours, and couldn't fly us. Sooo back in the truck, back to town. I have to say, the airforce guys were pretty damn awesome, and when they knew something, so did we. Which was very nice.

Things worth noting.. our trip in and our of town is about an hour and a bit to the airfield, on a 1960's delta. These things are a cross between awesome and hilarious. They are big and slow and bumpy as buggery. The drivers do damn well to get them in and out of town, in my opinion. They are square. A little square head where the driver sits, and a big box on the back where the passengers sit. The wheels are taller than me (not that hard..). It looks like a robot ant, but BIG.

We got back after hours on the 23rd, and everyone had shut down for the holidays. Including the people that had the keys to our room, and sheets for our beds and so on.. Thankfully, one of the guys in the other group (Nils) had been on the truck before us, and had the presence of mind to let the relevant people know that we were still coming back, and had sorted out our keys and laundry for us, because he is a legend. Unfortunately, I don't have access to the science library, with it's wireless internet (that department had shut for the holidays already), so photos of our adventure will have to wait. Jim, I have many photos of aeroplanes. I didn't take the best one, of the engineers lying on their backs underneath the plane, undoing bits with a screwdriver. I think Michael did, so have a look on his blog.

Following all that, we ate dinner and a fairly disappointed bunch of people went drinking. I will, at a later date, explain all of the fun things that we are missing at the South Pole, and so the necessity of alcohol :)  Turns out, there is very little that beer, a foozball table, air hockey, a pack of cards, and good company can't cure, so all is good.

Today I think I'm going to go for a wander back up Observation Hill and the long way back home, because it's a beautiful day outside, then I will perhaps check out the climbing gym and see how many muscles I've lost, and then I will go and do jigsaw puzzles inside without feeling guilty :) I do believe that covers everything.

I hope y'all are well, and are having a wOnDERful christmas and holidays!

Cheers,
Yael