Thursday 19 February 2004
End of the summer
It's nearly the end of the summer here at Halley. The Ernest Shackleton has returned to pick up the last of the summer team. In a couple of days time they'll be leaving for nine months leaving 18 of us here for the winter. There's definitely a sense of excitement building amongst those of us staying about the coming winter - so much has already happened but there's still so much to look forward to.
As well as the arrival of the Shackleton we've also had HMS Endurance moored at the coast for the last few days. They had been helping us deposit fuel drums along the coast when one of their helicopters crashed in bad weather. The injured crew had to be flown out via Halley on their way to South America. We went for a barbeque onboard on Saturday night. It was a great chance to meet some new people and have a change of scenery and a trip to the coast.
The journey home at the end of the night was quite a lot different from your typical taxi home. We spent two hours on a sledge being towed by a sno-cat in temperatures of -20C! We drove from the sea ice edge, past emperor penguins and up onto the ice shelf, all the time the sun was setting then rising behind a layer of low mist. Our beers first turned slushy, then chewy before eventually freezing solid. By the time we got back we were all covered in a layer of ice and very much ready for a cup of tea in the warm.
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