sorry to all followers for the lack of posts to this blog. Only i have been kind of busy.
The flight from SANAE to Halley was spectacular, I sat next to Ian who is the expedition field expert and Ryan who is the Glacier scientist., and they were explaining all about the hostile environment we were flying over. It was very exciting and equally as interesting, learning about the Rumbles which is the floating sea ice, and the Hinge which is were the ice shelf meets the continent.
Ryan is the scientist that actually discovered the crack in the Brunt ice shelf that will eventually break off Taking Halley V with it. (Which is the reason for the new build of Halley V)l. From the air we could clearly see the crack in the Ice.
When the plane came into Halley, there was a blow, which is like a sand storm only with snow. The pilot could not find the runway and had to circle a few times. It was touch and go as to wether he could land at all, but eventually made the decision to go for it and landed the plane with a sharp drop and a bump and a bone shaking landing as the skis ran over the ice.
When we eventually stepped off the plane we were met by our base commander and a team of skidoos. The weather was blustery, very sunny and very, very cold.
We unloaded our baggage onto Challenger tractors and climbed onto trailers pulled by large track mobiles. It was a great ride to the laws building which is were we had our induction and safety talks.
We then had dinner and a tour of the whole camp before being allocated with our rooms. I am in the bottom bunk of room 7 in the Drewry building.
I have to walk to work every morning, which entails: getting up early to get all my polar gear on, Thermal under garments, thick socks, thinsulate top, thick boiler suit, suncream (factor 50) Buff, hat, sunglasses, gloves and snow boots. Once kitted up I tag out from my building and walk 15 minutes to the Laws building. Tag into that building and walk down the corridor past the field office and a couple of science labs to the kitchen. get out of my gear and put my chefs kit on, the whole process from my pit room to the kitchen takes approx 40 mins but what a walk to work.
View from my bedroom window in the Drewry
The first job i had to do was to make bread for the day, 3 batches to be exact and that is the same every day, bread, bread and more bread.
With no Tesco down the road everything is made for these hungry workers.
Two of the seven Challengers used to pull the Drewry
This is my walk to work every morning
Containers and the new Halley VI modules
View from The Laws building (which is where the kitchen is) looking at the Drewry
(my accommodation Block)
Me in the gear needed for the walk to work..
The day consists of 7.30am start, they get their own breakfast of tea, coffee, toast and cereals, then at 10.30am they come to the dining room for what they call morning smoko. (Which i am led to believe was a morning break for early mountaineers or expedition parties, where in their food rations of dried ingredients would be tobacco for their pipes)
The smoko consists of items such as Hot dogs, burgers, cheese on toast.and anything savoury with a cup of tea or coffee. At 1.30pm they all come in for lunch.
Then in the afternoon at 4.30pm they break for afternoon smoko, Which is like afternoon tea, with a cake or biscuit, such as fruit cake, flapjacks, chocolate brownies etc. All of which we have to make.
Then Dinner is at 7.30pm and we are finished by 8.30pm. So everything really does revolve around the food and meal times…
It is good and i am enjoying it, there are some amazing things happening. The most exciting thing that has happened so far is the moving of the Drewry, our accommodation block. It needed to be positioned nearer the laws building as there are another 18 workers coming in to work on the new base camp, Halley Vl. so moor accommodation units have to be attached to the Drewry.
The whole building was towed into its new position using 3 large challenger track vehicles, with 2 bulldozers at the front pulling, and 2 bulldozers at the rear pushing, with me and a few other guys inside making sure nothing falls
It was a military feat of precision towing and was fantastic to be involved in.
I also got to stand and watch as they pulled one of the new modules out of it's winter hole and onto the flat ice. That too was awesome.
The next big thing is Thursday, when they will be pulling the Big Red One, the largest of the new modules out of the Ice that it is stuck in. Apparently a very tricky manoeuvre
(my accommodation Block)
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