After all the takeover people were flown out, we spent the next few days flying out the rest of the cargo, finishing up the rest of the cargo work at Summer station, shut down the summer station, and finally left for home two days ago.
Halfway we had to pick up the other Caboose, but this was easier said than done since we almost could not find it in the dark and mist! We decided to rather wait till morning to take down the router antenna and hook the Caboose. Since only one person can comfortably sleep in a Challenger at a time, three of us decided to spend the night in the 8-sleeper in mummy bags. Mine totally sucked bum since the zip didn't close properly, and apart from that, it was so cold inside that the fabric actually felt like it was burning! Seriously the coldest night I have EVER had!! Waking up every couple of hours because your muscles cramp from shivering too much is not fun.. Okay, so maybe I'm a wuss. We survived the night and got the work done early the next morning, ready for the next long stretch.
We arrived at SANAE this morning around 03:00, tired, hungry and stinky. Had some leftovers and then off to bed at like 04:00am. The rest of the day was pretty chilled, got up around 9, did the outstanding data corrections, had something to eat, then back to bed.
The base feels seriously weird with only ten people here!!
So we are stuck again, this time at the summer station. The weather was too stormy for flying the passengers out. It is really cramped and there isn't much to do here. The days consist of playing Xbox, watching movies, sleeping, talking crap, playing poker, and smellying (that is when the wind doesn't blow you off your feet...).
We finally had a break in the weather two days ago, so this morning the plan was to fly as may of the people out as possible. Since the ship cannot make it to the ice shelf, some of the cargo will be stashed in the 'garage' while some of the lighter containers will also be flown to the ship.
Had some crazy mixed emotions while everyone was packing up their stuff and looking at me like they are seeing me for the last time, but after we got to the ice shelf, where they were flying the people from, it was more of an excited feeling than a sad or lonely one. Ofcourse helping to hook the loads, 'kloutering' over containers, and the inbetween snowball fight set me on my usual cargo-work-high, so the day wasn't all that bad. By late afternoon the weather started turning for worse again, but atleast they managed to fly out half the cargo and all of the passengers.
Tonight will be the first night of our year alone...
We have been stuck in the base due to a massive storm for more than a week. The ship was supposed to be leaving for South Africa today, but due to sucky weather half of the people are on the ship waiting, the drivers are at the SA Summer station, and a couple of people were still at the base with us. The plan was to drive to summer station with all of the remaining takeover personnel stuffed in the Caboose. Hopefully the weather clears up enough for them to be flown to the ship, either that or the ice breaks up enough for the ship to get close enough to the ice shelf for the peoples to be swung over with the crane. The ship can only stay here till at the latest the 25th of Feb. If it stays any longer than that there wont be enough fuel to get them back to Cape Town. So if the weather doesn't clear up enough for flying the last 20 people will have to stay till they can be flown out with a feeder flight or something.
We left for Summer station yesterday morning at around 11:30, ready for the 36-or-more-hour drive to summer station. We were 3 drivers per Challenger, and then 12people in the 8sleeper Caboose. The younger bunch decided that riding on top of the Caboose would be better, so along with some Mummy bags and a few bottles of Tequila, they roughed it out on the roof.
We reached halfway around 6am and had to stop to pick up Challenger 6, whose turbo (or something) crapped out in the previous storm. I know absolutely nothing about cars and engines, so clogged up air filters and turbo parts kinda just sounded like bla bla to me. Either way, it was leaking oil like a mofo. After some struggling we got it loaded onto a sled and tied it down so it won't slip off somewheres along the way. While some of the guys, that looked like they knew what they were doing, were working on 6, I decided to go wake the roof-sleepers with some Valentines day hugs/fall on top of them. Was kinda fun being one of two girls amongst a bunch of men on V-day, plus we had an amazing sunset once again!
An hour later we were ready for the second half, or so we thought, five meters further Challenger 3 was stuck, fun times. Apparently the load was too heavy, so we shuffled the loads around and we were off again.
Challenger 5 is a bit small, so only one of the three people can lie down to sleep at a time, unless you want to be doing some (semi-inappropriate) cuddling with a teammate...we took 2hour turns, so two hours driving, two hours of sitting on a way uncomfy chair next to the driver and then 2hours of sleeping in the back of the cab. So after we had challenger 6 on a sled at the back, I had one of my awesomely brilliant lightbulb moments, and rather than sitting for two hours and sleeping for another two, I jumped into 6 with a sleeping bag and pillow and slept like a dead thing for the next four hours. When I woke up the weather had turned kinda crap and it was windy, snowy and there was like no contrast, thank goodness we were almost there!
Three hours later we arrived at the summer station, unpacked everything, and finally had a chance to eat some proper food, but only after being hoisted up by the crane in a bucket rather than climbing up the ladder - so much cooler!! Our first CATtrain without the drivers was a success, yay!
The base consists of a couple of containers that were redesigned to be a mini base, having 5 rooms with 2 bunk beds each, a kichen, lounge, bathroom, and generator room.
If my maths serves me right, 5rooms x 4beds each = 20beds, and we are 26 people, so sharing or bumming in the lounge will be inevitable...
Tonight we had one of the first sunsets since we have been here. It feels really strange to see a sunset after about two months of having 24hours sunshine.
Me and Renier stood on the base's roof till our fingers froze off. It was beyond beautiful, and staying up till after 1:00am to see it was totally worth it!
