It was a dark and stormy night
In the city of Cape Town…
We had an outing planned for our Saturday Spot,
But we stayed home so as not to drown!!!
Nevertheless, the explorer spirit prevails and I thought I would post se7en things you may not know about travel in the Antarctic. Been there. Done that. Lost the T-shirt.
- Day and night are just as bright in the middle of summer – really they are! You can work the night-shift and it makes no difference! As you go further north and you start to get sunrises and sunsets, every sunrise is a beautiful sunrise and every sunset is a beautiful sunset.
- When you cross from one ship onto an ice-breaker don’t look down you could well loose your sun-glasses into the deepest depths and you will be blind without them.
- If you don’t like helicopters don’t go. It’s the only way to get from boat to base. If you know each and every helicopter you see by name, brand whatever – then you will be fine! Trust me on this!
- When it gets up to two or three degrees Celsius (35 degrees Fahrenheit) everyone dashes out doors to grab some sun. And neither of these fellows is a picture of me!
- It’s a great spot for flying kites and building igloos, snow fights, snow angels and skidoos. Now that’s me – well somewhere under all those clothes that I never believed I would need. And clearly it wasn’t me that lost their sunglasses.
- You don’t need a freezer! All the food is stored on open shelves in the “pantry.” Here is a picture of the pantry and a years supply of food for a team. Breakfast cereal, flour, vegetables, steaks – all frozen solid!
- It’s a long way from anywhere. It’s not the cold that is so mind blowing, it’s not the bright white as far as the eye can see…it’s the quiet. The ice absorbs all noise and the background noises of our regular lives are obviously not there! Really awesomely still and quiet.”
That’s it, time to go home. And I have to add that you never ever get used to the site of brilliant blue ice-bergs floating by.
Hope you enjoyed the quick trip!
what an amazing experience!
That silence appeals so much…thanks for sharing your trip!
Hay Aunty Muffin… It was pretty cool!!!
Hi H!, Doesn’t the silence so appeal!!! … I will see if I can rustle up a few more exotic destinations next time there is a wild wintry stay at home storm! Hope you have a great weekend.
How about Venice and Gelato…
Hay H, I ‘ll pop it into the moleskin on the Saturday Spot list! I love it when folk who read our blog tell us what to do!!! You have a great week!
Wow, that’s amazing, an experience of a life time!
Just out of curiosity, what were you researching?
Hay D, On this trip I was a research scientist, taking the oceans temperature profile every four hours for a couple of months! The purpose was to gather data for a global warming project I was working on. I’ll post some more Southern Ocean pictures when our weather is too awful for our typical Saturday Spots.