Hello from rainy Antarctica!  Would you believe it – one of the driest places (in terms of precipitation) in the world and it’s raining!  It’s probably a good thing though, helping me to acclimatise to the UK before I return home to the shock of soggy weather.  Still, at least everything won’t be all frozen!

So!  Regular update from down here at Rothera contains... not that much.  The season here is well and truly at an end and everyone is getting ready to travel north.  Tom and I fly out on the 3^rd of March and we are the penultimate Dash flight out with the one after us being just the pilots.  In between then and now the four Twin Otters will all be fitted with their Ferry Tanks to make the long journey up and will have all left by the time we do.  It’s weird to think that in a week’s time it will all be over and we will be about to leave for the Falkland’s.  It’s been a pretty long season but in both respects it’s flown by and also it feels like we have been here for ages.  When I think back to things we have done down here: our field training, the two weeks at Fossil Bluff and the Reptile Ridge work it feels like we’ve been down here forever but here we are at the end and I can honestly say that time hasn’t dragged once.  Having said that I do feel that the time is right to come back – I’ve started to get into going home mode and am looking forward to all the things I haven’t been able to do whilst I’ve been away.  However I’m not as excited as Steve MET was a week before he was due to leave – it was all he talked about and he would come up to the tower and tell Tom and me how many days he had left!  To be fair to him, he was the hardest working person on base getting up around five in the morning to be on standby all day until about ten, seven days a week.   No wonder he couldn’t wait to leave!

Since the last time I posted we have had Folk Night, which became Folk Night/Air Unit barbecue, and we had HMS Scott in the day before.  Tom and I made sure we got ourselves on to that ship by asking John every time we saw him and in the end I think he just felt sorry for us and let us go to stop the incessant asking.  It was only four of us that got the chance to go across in the end and it was one of the most memorable experiences that I’ve had down here (to be fair it was only a week ago...).  Once onboard we were met by the XO and given a tour of the ship and her facilities – which were first class.  Every man onboard has his own cabin and Officers also have a day cabin, two gyms, a basketball/squash court and an extremely impressive hydrography suite.  At one point around the ship, the XO opened a compartment which ran the height of the ship and it was huge!!  There was just a bit of time for some lunch in the Wardroom, uckers and a cheeky bit of JPA.  That was quite funny as both of us had not been online since we left, four months ago, and both struggled to remember our passwords...  We got there in the end. 

After the Scott had departed we had a cruise ship in the day after and I was roped into giving tours to the passengers.  Nothing exciting: just showing them round the base, taking them to the aquarium and science labs, answering their questions and highlighting my own lack of knowledge of the base...  That evening was the Air Unit barbecue which was held indoors due to inclement weather (surprise) and also Folk Night.  It was a really good evening and a chance to take a humorous look at the events of the past season with people doing sketches, songs and some stand up.   Since then it has been very quiet.  We had fifteen people leave on the Dash a few days ago and another fifteen leaving tomorrow, so it’s getting very sparse around the bazaars.  We also uplifted Sky Blu last night which officially marks the end of the season and has now made evening scheds (where we talk to field parties) a lot easier with just Fossil Bluff out awaiting shut down.  At the peak of the summer we had eight field parties out which took two hours to get through, now it’s just fifteen minutes.  Result! 

On a more awesome note – Tom and I were treated to some private flying time with Alan, the Chief Pilot, a few days ago.  It was THE best experience I’ve had down here without a question of a doubt.  We flew out of Rothera to uplift North Sound Depot at the north of King George Sound near the Bluff.  I took co-pilot first and once lined up on the threshold Alan turns to me and says: ‘You’ll be doing 90% of this if you’re happy?’ Let me think about that.... yes!  So I did the take off and the hour and a half flight down to the depot, with some cheeky low level flying thrown in.  On the way down we flew over sea and icebergs and as we were approaching the Sound Alan turns and says: ‘Let’s have some fun – descend down to 500ft and then when you’re comfortable take her down to 250ft’.  Hell yeah!  It was the most exciting flying that I have ever done; just watching the icebergs and the ice cliffs about 100ft below was so exhilarating!  Especially when you fly over a particularly tall berg and with the RadAlt set to 200ft you hear: ‘Terrain! Terrain! Pull up!’ in a weird robotic, but very loud, voice!  Unfortunately, when we located the fuel drums, the contrast was down to nil which meant that I couldn’t do the landing and so Alan stepped in.  However on the way back, whilst Tom was flying, we found a large patch of sun on the snow which meant the contrast was good enough for us chimps to have a go at a few landings with skis.  It was such an awesome days flying and one that I’ll never forget. 

That’s about it for this post.  Not much else has happened and not much is really due to happen in the days before we leave.  It’s going to be work as normal, flight following and fire cover, and starting to pack.  My next post will probably be my last from the continent so I will try to make it exciting however I can only work with the material I have...

Not much

Apologies for the lack of activity to those who check my blog, by now you should realise that I’m not very consistent...  I guess it’s the closeness of leaving and the thought of going home that makes me feel like there’s not much point in writing, which is ridiculous because I’m still here for another three weeks.  To be fair, not a lot has happened in the three weeks since I last wrote: the field season is coming to an end and people are starting their long journeys north which means there’s not been time for anything except work, work, work.  I’m starting to notice myself getting tired a lot more and a week or so ago I had a terrible cold that I just couldn’t shake.  It was one going round the station and thankfully I didn’t catch it as badly as some others did but it spread like wildfire.  It’s quite interesting to see something like that spread in such a close environment – you could actually see the change in some people of the space of a few hours and you could work out who passed it to who.  Not very interesting, I know, but I’m soo tired right now and my chat is suffering for it, sorry!  The reason for my lack of energy? 4 o’clock starts in the morning in order to flight follow some of the survey planes.  Go Science!  In truth I don’t mind it too much as it’s quite nice to have the tower to yourself for a few hours before anyone is awake and the views when the sunrises are stunning; that and the enjoyment taken from people being woken at 4:30 when the aircraft taxis and gets airborne outside their windows.  Well, if I’m up...

Last time I wrote it was the eve of Gould night and the football team were playing in the ultimate grudge match out on the apron.  What can I say: we lost.  To be fair when Tom and I bimbled down from the gym we found what resembled a cartoon fight in the sense that there was a lot of arms, legs and dust.  Some bright spark had decided to allow about seventeen people aside on a pitch that was smaller than a normal one.  One word: farce...  We only lost by one goal to nil and it was wonder how anyone managed to score with that number of people in the way.  Gould Night itself was really good fun – everyone enjoyed the band, the music was good and the drink kept flowing.  I don’t know how exactly it happened but I ended up staying until 6am and only went to bed when John, the base commander, came in on his way to organise casting of the Gould at 7.  Good times.  Good times...

Tom and I are still working the circuit scene and everyone is still enjoying them so we must be doing something right!  I took them last week and we had fourteen people turn up!  Fourteen!  The gym here is ridiculously tiny so it was pretty cramped to say the least but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.  Aparently Tom and I are a double act in the sense that he’s the bad cop and I’m the slightly effeminate cop.  Basically Tom beasts everyone so that their muscles fall of and I tell everyone that they all look lovely and that they can reach their rainbow.  Not gay, just slightly effeminate...  

So, what’s coming up here at Rothera that’s worth putting in your diary? Well we have Folk night next Saturday or Sunday night which is the last biggish night that we have down here.  It’s basically an open mike night and a chance for anyone to get up and do anything whether that’s singing, playing an instrument or doing a sketch.  Then this Saturday we have the annual Air Unit barbecue over on the apron.  This I’ve been looking forward to because, as my family will testify, I am a bit of a glutton and what better excuse to eat your own body weight in meat than at a barbecue.  The Dash flies in tomorrow from Punta with the last lot of people coming south for the season and also onboard is a large supply of fresh South American meat in the form of burgers and steaks as well as beer and fresh salad – all we need now is the weather!  Oh, and time off work...  As always, whenever anything interesting happens on base I am always working.  It’s not too bad though, Karen and I will be able to see the barbecue from the tower and we could always put a food order out on the loud speaker...  One thing I will make sure I’m available for will be when HMS Scott visits on the 21^st.  That will be good, although I may need a shave and a haircut if I want to present myself as a Naval Officer and don’t want to be mistaken for a homeless person...