Live from Antarctica: January 9
The BELARE relief team for the second part of the season has arrived at Troll, and has been blocked here by poor visibility and snowy weather conditions at Utsteinen. We are experiencing the hospitality of Troll station, and the ten of us slept here last night in the distinctive white guest tents of the Norwegian Polar Institute station. Under poor visibility you could be forgiven for thinking that they were blocks of ice, but they can hold up to four in relative comfort. The temperature here is about -10°C, so actually warmer than Belgium.
The Basler flight will return from the plateau where it took a French camera team to meet up with the Norway/US traverse from the South Pole.They should be back this afternoon, and we will then take the Troll bus back down to the airfield to fly on to Novo and Utsteinen. The team that will be evacuated will be back in the early morning of the 10th in time to fly out with the Ilyushin to Cape Town in the evening.
The team is eager to be on its way despite the warm welcome from our Norwegian hosts - there is a lot to be done and we are all impatient to see how things are going at the station - the pictures show a lot of changes.
Nighat Amin
Picture: International Polar Foundation - © International Polar Foundation