After a year of excitement and preparation, I finally arrived at RAF Brize Norton to meet my colleagues from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). While it hadn't quite sunk in yet over the last few months, this was the moment when it all became real. The friendly faces proved to me - I am GOING SOUTH! After several forms, paperwork, passport checks and more delays we finally boarded the aircraft. Not quite the windowless military plane I was somehow expecting to be sharing with personell carriers, boxes of ammo and uniformed youngsters clutching their guns, but a rather quaint Boeing 767 leased from Air Italy. The huge plane came complete with italian crew, but unfortunately not-so-italian food (reheated military ration packs were on the "menu" instead).
The first leg of most trips down south with BAS will take the route via the Ascension Islands where we were soon headed. The overnight flight took just under 9 hours and in the half-empty plane I managed to find some space to fold myself into a couple fo extra seats and snooze until I woke up to a wonderful mid-Atlantic sunset. We already knew that the plane would have to stop in Ascension for at least 14 hours, and had been advised by the lady at the check-in desk to pack some shorts and swim wear. Ascension is not far south of the equator and opening the air craft doors at 9 in the morning send a warm breeze through my stiff bones. Hugh calls this constant, warm and dry wind the "Ascension hair dryer" - it's stuck on constant. There is no off-switch and no temperature dial.
The whole flight, consisting of officers, soldiers, engineers and scientists, was bussed from the airport to "Travellers Hill", a bungalow compound part of a military installation. Meals were served in the combined mess (where staff, officers and lower ranks dine with civilians) and there was even a small shop and phone box. Ascension, due to its convenient halfway position in the Atlantic, is an island with possibly the highest concentration of antennas and aerials anywhere, so it was somewhat surprising that phone calls weren't exactly cheap and the wireless internet was expensive enough to leave the emails alone for a day.
After each meal I went for walk with Hugh, our chief scientist on the cruise. He had made the return journey 7 times before, but rarely had such a long stopover to explore the island. On our walks we hiked up two of the volcanic peaks which gave us a great overview of the island. The island is volcanic in origin, but it's not a typical cone-shape - more like a raised plateau dotted with many individual craters. Before the British arrived and set up gardens and planted all sorts of greenery, it was a barren moon-scape of lava and pumice. Invasive species of plants have since started to colonise the island and the added vegetation has meant that the island now gets some clouds and the occasional rain shower. The early seafarers of the 18th century would have seen none of this - there was very little water on the island and thirsty mariners had to turn to turtles for sustenance. Literally - they turned the resident sea turtles on their backs to immobilise the poor creatures and stacked them on the decks where they'd keep "fresh" (i.e. barely alive) for up to six weeks.
After the Italian flight crew had their mandatory break, we were all bussed back to the airport for another over-nighter. The second leg of the flight would take us to the Falkland Islands. The arrow on the inflight information screens kept inching further and further south as I fell asleep.
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