Firm ground (ice!!!!) at last

Following a quick safety briefing from the Halley Base commander, we were ushered to our cabins to finish packing and change bedding and clean up in readiness for disembarking our dishwasher, sorry ship. It has been a bit confusing at times....

Beautiful blue skies, a gentle but icy breeze ( about -2 but with windchill -5ish) a skidoo with painful looking trailer and a welcoming party of about 30 penguins. Kitted out in our thermal winter togs and bags offloaded, now it was our turn. The gangway was impossible to use because of the distance to the ice so we were dropped onto the ice, by the war geordy ( not sure if thats spelt right) and the smaller crane. Once on the ice it was straight onto the skidoo and up the ramp to the ice shelf, and to the caboose, to wait for the rest.

The views were fantastic, the winds bitterly cold but glorious sunshine to boot, the only thing missing were a few sledges for a run back down the ramp..

It took about 20 minutes to offload everyone ( 9 of us) and luggage ready for the trip over to Halley V and the Halley VI construction site. After we have left the ship the Relief begins in ernest to offload the Cargo of food, materials, equipment and some 2500 fuel drums. The ships crew and team from Halley work around the clock for anything up to a week to complete this operation then load the ship with the waste from the previous 12 months to be dropped at the Falklands.

Preferred mode of transport for the journey, which is actually 15 km inland ( ok ok ice....) was by Snowcat and trailer but what the hell we (the 4 intrepid male explorers) opted for the hardcore trailer along with 5 ton bags of timber sent over for the bbq (braai), tight squeeze but worth the experience all day long. This also gave us our first taster of the ferocity of the south polar sun, the relentless power of the high uv due to the hole in the ozone (which by chance is right above us!!!), and was discovered by BAS at Halley, but also the reflection from the snow and ice. The sunburn reaches places you wouldn't believe....

I am struggling to get photos uploaded from here but I have the IT department working on it for me ;)