travel and transport - Teaching On Ice

The scale of Antarctic landscapes is incredible

Vectors - so which trace is pulling the sledge the
most forwards?

En route to our remote camp

A great explorer's photo of the Union Glacier

Twin Otter skiplanes are the taxis of Antarctica

We've come from here, we're heading that way

The tools of science, Amy holds a brush for
sweeping snow off lichens and Ruth holds an ice
axe for chipping out cryoconite

Carl checking our altitude and route on the GPS

The Antarctic landscape is simple, but spectacular

A crevasse that we spotted and dug out … we
couldn’t see the bottom

The daily food intake for two people

Sedimentary rocks spectacularly folded

Uphill sledge hauling is not something that could be
done alone

Keeping the snow of my beard was tricky

My home for five weeks

When hauling, my breath froze to my beard

19th December

The wind dropped, the front moved slower than expected, the runway was cleared and the plane arrived at 13.05. By 15.05 we were in the air and at 19.30 we landed back in Punta. I’m sad to have left, but I’m glad to be heading home.

Sitting in the pub last night was a strange, strange experience; it was so different to Antarctica that it made the last 38 days seem very surreal … but the stories, the photos, the science and the team around me prove that it did happen and, although it wasn’t always fun, every moment was incredible.

We are leaving Punta Arenas early tomorrow morning to fly to Santiago and then it’s to Heathrow, via Madrid, arriving about 16.30 on the 21st. However, there’s no going home once we’re back in the UK as we have a full day of physiology tests to complete on the 22nd. Once the tests are complete then the team, who have been together for more than 50 days, will finally head their separate ways. But even that’s not the end as there are science results to analyse, school visits to do, comments to reply to, teaching materials to create, stories to tell and weight to be put back on!

18th December

The Antarctic Great Escape is in progress. The Ilyushin jet left Punta Arenas 18 minutes ago and is due here in a little over four hours.

However, the snow machines are still clearing, the wind is picking up and out of the window I can see the weather system, which could ruin visibility, heading our way. It’s going to be tight – can the plane get down onto the ice and off again before the wind, snow or visibility shuts us down?

A couple of days ago frustrations at the delay seemed to be boiling over, with some people trying to find someone to complain at. Tension in camp is still high. It will be interesting to see what happens if this plane gets turned around before landing (very possible at the moment due to the wind speed).

What’s ridiculous is that currently I’m keen to get home, but in a week or so I’ll be wanting to come back!