A Trip of a Lifetime(Final Part)(Part 4)

-Pramod Aryal

To read part 3 click here

Only after 3 days, I got to meet my room mate. He was air mechanic and came from Canada. He was going back in same day as I was leaving. He had to take BAS twin otter to Canada for servicing. The journey would take him about 9 days through various places in South and North America. He loved his job. That day we also got training on outdoor travel. We were shown the ways to operate stoves, setup tents and a tour in snow mobile up the glacier.

It took nearly a week to put the radar up and running. When we got it going it was a big relief as it was performing very well. Peter was impressed with the performance. I was happy that all went well. After completing the Meteor radar, I started to look at MF radar which had been there from 1996 but was never working properly. The most of my remaining time was spent on that system trying to fault find and fix them.

Majestic Mountain at the front of the base in clear day

In between, I signed up for skiing lesson. BAS encouraged people to get out there and have good time. Simon the instructor took four of us to a ramp on glacier for the ski lesion. Peter also decided to join. It was sunny day with absolutely clear blue Sky. The ramp was near airport hanger. Further down was the glacier cliffs. Icebergs were floating just under the wall of glacier showing the ultimate beauty. There could not have been better site and day for a skiing lesson. Simon was very professional and good instructor. In around half hour time, we were getting used to the slope and doing some twist and turns. There were no ski lifts to go back up the ramp. We had to walk up a small step at a time. It was tiring to climb but decent on ski after the climb refreshed me. We kept on going for 3 hours. Then our thigh muscles started to gave up. We then decided to pack up for the day.

I was there for two and half weeks and before I realised it was almost time to get back. Wayne left four days before me. Weather was good the day he flew. I spent rest of my time doing maintenance in old radar and taking walk around the North point. I wanted to walk up the glacier ramp someday but I did not have enough time. There was a camp site above the glacier, which would have taken about hours walk through snow. I had been there in field training conducted by BAS in my first week. That day there was stormy weather. We were in snow mobile. Snow mobile was very impressive. It could go up the ramp of glacier without skidding back. The combination of strong wind, snow and poor visibility made the trip up the glacier thrilling. I wished I had time to go back there again on foot.

A wild day at Beach

I was worried that my flight might be delayed due to poor weather. I had organised rest of my flight to Adelaide based on flight out of Antarctic to Falkland Islands. In the case of delay, it would stir up rest of my schedule. Luck favoured me. I did fly in the day that was scheduled to. Once again the base Commander Steve Marshall farewelled us at the hanger. There were about 13 people in the DASH 7 aircraft including Neil and myself. Plane took off and in about 5 hours we were in Falkland Islands.

When I got off the plane in Falkland Islands, I was astounded to see green grass. I could smell the vegetation in the air. It was windy but not cold. That was also an interesting feeling of being windy but not cold. We cleared the custom and unloaded plane by ourself. In about half an hour, we were on the way to Stanley. The bus ride to Stanley also felt strange. The civilisation was slowly sinking in me. That evening after 8PM, it became dark. That darkness was fascinating as I had not seen one from last two and half weeks. I looked out of my guest house window and just admired the nature, its creation and humanity. Yes..! I was back in civilisation.

A Picture that is embedded in my mind

Now looking back from the comfort of the home, it all seems a distance memory. However, it is the memory that will last forever. Those two weeks were the one of the most amazing experience of my life.