I find myself pondering the
passing of another U.K. summer - as the leaves begin to turn and my mind turns
with them to thoughts of going away. I’ll once more be swapping the onset of
autumn for the early days of summer in Antarctica. It’s a slightly strange time
– that last week or so before deployment. I am looking forward to the
season ahead but there is also a reluctance to leave behind my life
in Eskdale, and a desire to hold onto all those things that cannot possibly be
held on to. But as hard as it is to say goodbye for another year, I know deep down
that it is the going away that makes me love those special places and those special
people all the more. The nature of all things is to change, and maybe it is
that impermanence which gives them great beauty and gives us great joy.
I usually spend the immediate few
days before departure at my mum’s, and this year was no different. I treasure
that time so much – it’s relaxing, and full of laughter and much tea drinking.
I was also able to visit my sister and her kids (who were a good deal more
hyper by the time I left, and all their footballs had been lost to next door’s
garden). My younger brother came up to stay for a few days, and it was so
lovely to see him as well. He was also able to drop me off at Heathrow for my
flight which I was extremely grateful for – both for the company and for practical
reasons as well. It’s a considerable faff taking two big kit bags and hand
luggage on trains and then the underground, and last year when I got a hire car
it took me a full 10 minutes to work out how to turn the engine on. My 09-plate
van does not even have electric windows, and all this new car technology
utterly baffles me!
In order to get to Rothera we fly
commercially to Punta Arenas in the south of Chile via first Sao Paulo and then
Santiago. From Punta we then take the BAS owned Dash-7 plane across the Drake
Passage and down to station. Even if everything goes smoothly it’s a long old
journey, and right from the very start of this trip things were not quite going
to plan! We boarded the plane at Heathrow on time, and started to taxi to the
runway but promptly returned to the gate as it was announced that there was an
issue with the left engine. This problem was eventually resolved, and two hours
later we were underway and airborne. We had however given up all hope of making
our connecting flight in Sao Paulo – but that was something to concern
ourselves with in 12 hours’ time. I had watched most of the movie Chevalier
while the plane was being fixed and had watched the rest of it and fallen
asleep before the evening meal was served. The redeeming factor of needing to
take travel sickness pills is that they make you slightly drowsy. Even so, the
sleep was only as good as plane sleep can be, and I woke up to the realisation
that I had missed one of the exciting moments that break up the monotony of a long-haul
flight! Quite miraculously, we landed in Sao Paulo to discover that they had
held our onward flight to Santiago, so the 12 of us ran across Sao Paulo
airport and tried to look apologetic rather than delighted when we boarded the
plane. But it turns out we needn’t have either worried or have rushed. This
plane also had an issue with the left engine, and we sat motionless for two
hours before everyone had to disembark. We were then told to return to the gate
a few hours later, only to be told that the plane wasn’t flying anywhere. So,
we went through Brazilian passport control and customs where we were issued
with a 10-day Brazilian visa, collected our bags, and waited in a queue for nearly
5 hours to try and rearrange our flights. We passed a crossword book around, we
took it in turns to go outside and step foot on Brazilian soil, we played some
make-shift football with a crushed up plastic water bottle, and we drank cold,
cold beer with no thought as to what time of day it was. We were fully
expecting to spend a night in Sao Paulo, but they ended up putting an extra
flight on that would get us into Santiago at about 11pm, and then boarding the
onward flight to Punta at 3.30am. The tiredness was starting to creep in, but I
think we were all largely managing to remain accepting of the situation rather
than being frustrated by it. And the upside of the whole thing – for me at
least – was getting a Brazilian stamp in my passport, and bumping into the Brazilian
baseball team who were also trying to get to Santiago (for the PanAm Games).
Not that I’m remotely a baseball fan, but it added a small element of excitement
and I found myself wishing them well and determined to check on their progress
(they were surprise finalists and lost to the equally surprising finalists,
Colombia). We arrived in Punta at 9am and checked into the hotel in time for
breakfast. I had a shower, and then lay down on my hotel room double bed for
several hours – not really sleeping, but reading, dosing, and above all
delighting in the fact that I was neither on a plane nor at an airport. We were
staying at a hotel in the centre of town, and I had a nice room on the fourth
floor overlooking a tree-lined square. I could see a tall church spire with its
red roof and hear its bells. I could also see the hills beyond which still had
patches of snow on them that the spring has not yet thawed. That evening I
wandered down to the front with Jacob to play some chess on the chess boards
painted onto concrete tables. I had brought a travel chess set with me, and the
pieces looked tiny on the enormous squares and moving a pawn to e4 has never seemed
so bold. It was a beautiful, still night with the sky tinged a gentle pink. It
felt good to be back in Punta, and to know that we had at least another full
day there before the weather looked good enough to get into Rothera. In the end
it was the best part of a week, arriving on the Monday morning and departing on
the Saturday. Within that time, we had to move hotels once, to the Patagonia
B&B. We were told by someone who had stayed there previously that the
bathrooms are very nice, but if you’ve got a room on the ground floor keep your
window closed if you don’t like cats. I
was quite glad of a few days to rest and recover after the journey down, and to
be able to appreciate the things which would soon disappear from my life for
the next four months. Simple things like wandering aimlessly around the streets
of a town, and probably the biggest thing outside of family and friends that I
miss when in Antarctica – green and trees. A few of us went up to the
Magallanes National Reserve one day – a twenty-minute taxi ride to the park entrance.
Some of the trails were closed – presumably because of snow, but there was
still plenty of walking to enjoy. I absolutely loved being amongst the trees,
and hearing the wind move through the branches, and feeling the chill of it
above the treeline. I was conscious of wanting to savour those moments; the
sounds, the smells, and the sense of freedom that comes from being in a land
not bound by ocean, ice, and snow. But of that icy land – there was so much I
was looking forward to, the stunning snowcapped peaks, the wildlife, the warmth
of my friends, and the sense of community on base. In fact, I found myself
quietly looking forward to the season more than ever before, and as the Dash-7
came into Rothera I felt a few tears welling up at the wonder of it all. It
felt so very good to be back.
