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.

बाँकी अंश...

A Trip of a LifeTime (Part 3)

-Pramod Aryal

To go to previous part(part 2) of travel logueclick here

I browse through the clothing kit that was given to us by BAS. It was like Christmas/Dashain. There were a lot of things from socks to warm jackets. I put some of them on and went for site visit. It turned out that I was a bit overdressed. Boots that I was wearing was about 5kg. I wore five layers on top and three layers on bottom. After all that, I was just about ready to roll than walk. I was walking like astronauts in their space suit. I was not taking chances of being cold again after what I experienced on my arrival. The radar site was in the North beach. There was strong Northerly wind which was bringing the iceberg from the ocean towards beach. It was amazing view with all these icebergs everywhere. I had trouble walking forward because of my excessive dress up and the strong wind. Just out of curiosity I started to walk backward. I could almost lie back and would not fall over. The wind was that strong.

The site was in picturesque location. All the antenna locations and base to make antenna were already setup by Peter. The cables were layed out. We could just about to start to work on Antenna. Radar hut was small and congested. It already had radar in there. We had to share the space. Outside there was beach on one side and a small hill on other. After observing site, we started to work on the system straight way.

The view from the antenna field

In the evening Neil and I took a walk around the point. We walked along the beach. There was the small stone hill on our right. It was windy, fairly cold and I was overdressed. It was difficult to put steps in right spot due to stones, boots and the wind. There was no set path to walk. We had to make our way through the stones going up and down. The view was breath taking. There was some wave in Ocean and icebergs were slowly getting drifted by the wind. During the walk, I encountered my first Weddle Seal. It was perfectly camouflaged in the stones. It did not seem to be bothered by our presence and kept on sun bathing. Neil mentioned that Weddle Seals don’t get bothered but if it is fur Seal, it will try to scare you off. Fur Seals are very territorial. Further down the track there were 3 penguins. I went close to them but they were also not bothered by my presence. Then I realised with their sense of defence, how would they made so far in hostile evolution. Perhaps they didn’t have powerful predators.

Socialising Penguins

During the Siberian huskey era for the Antarctic exploration, Seals were shot down for the feast for the dog right there in North beach of Rothera. The bones of the seals were still there on the beach. It might have been so easy to shoot them and too easy for dog to catch them judging from their sense of defence. Now dogs are banned in the Antarctic and strong rules are in place to protect the unspoiled natural wonder of the Antarctic. Those seals drowsing lazily on the beach are now safe and had nothing to worry about.

Relaxing Seal

After the walk it was dinner time. All the personnel gathered in cafeteria for the meal. It was very social environment. Everybody seemed relaxed and chatting with each other about the things they did that day. There were two chefs and maximum of about eighty people. Some people were out in the field. In summer time number in the base goes up to one hundred but in winter it drops to only 25. There were people in the base who had been there for two years continuous. It must have been very difficult thing to do being in middle of nowhere for such a long time. No grass, No trees no sweaty hot days…only 25 people regardless of whether you get along or not. For few minutes, I imagined being that situation but then realised that I could not have done it. Even though it was truly amazing place but living away in isolation from everything else did not appeal me.

At night! When I went to bed it was a weirdest feeling. It was 11:00pm but it was still bright outside. No sun but still bright. I could still see the glacier in front of me. My room mate was already sleeping. I could not meet him that day. I made up my bed and went to sleep. I could hear the cold wind blowing fiercely outside but I was too tired to be disturbed. I slept straight way.

Next day when I woke up, my room mate was already gone. I still didn’t get to meet him. That day I was wondering whole day who that might be. I looked around during the breakfast and lunch time to identify who that might be but no success. For the next few days, I spent most of my time installing radar. Someday weather will favour us but sometime we would get blizzard, horizontal snow blowing at our face. It would hit me so hard that it felt like being poked by needle. We worked through this condition to finish up work early so that we could relax later and be certain that system would run smoothly. Every time I walked to the North beach for the work, I always got stunned by the beauty of icebergs glowing in greenish colour and seals making iceberg their bed and just drowsing off. Not to mention the wall of glacier on the opposite side of where we were working. The beauty of that was embedded in my mind forever.

Working hard at work (in red coat) and relaxing on an iceberg afterwards. The sizes of the icebergs are seen in perspective.

To go to the next part(final part)click here

बाँकी अंश...

A Trip of A Lifetime (Part 2)

-Pramod Aryal

To read (Part 1) of the travel log click here

Finally 8th of February was there. We were very excited to fly down south. I woke up at 6AM in the anticipation of wonder that I would experience that day. After waiting till 8:30AM, we came to know that flight was cancelled because of poor weather in Rothera base. We had another day to wait. Wayne and I decided to go for walk to Gipsy Cove. The most of the people in Upland Goose were recommending us to go there. They told us it was only 2 miles.

Gipsy Cove of the Falkland Islands

We started to walk in normal shoes since we thought it won’t be long. Along the way we missed our turn and end up walking a very long way. Finally we made it to Gipsy cove. By this time we had already walked for 3 hours. The place was beautiful. Beach was amazing with a group of penguin on the sand. We took some photos, had bit of rest and headed back. This time we came right way but still made little mistake. By the time we got back to Upland Goose we had blisters on our foot and whole leg was aching. One thing I noticed in our walk was the DANGER MINE signs. I had not seen like that before. Landmines from the war between Argentina and UK were left there. Though it was well marked, it was little scary. I really think these landmines should be banned from the world.

Finally on 9th of February at 5AM we were going to fly to Rothera. We headed to airport early morning. We had to load our own bag in DASH 7 aircraft and immigration clearance was done while we were standing. I remember at times I had to line up for hours back in Melbourne/Sydney/Kathmandu to clear customs and felt what if we get this luxury back there!

At last we were in air. As soon as plane took off, we wonder around the cabin. There were only about ten of us. We were chatting up, making our own tea and sandwiches. It was relaxing casual environment till we came to know that we might have to return. There was strong head wind and we might not have enough fuel to get to Rothera. There was still some chance and we kept on flying against the strong wind. Eventually we crossed the point of no return. That meant if we had to return, we might not have enough fuel. That was not very comforting to know. I started to wonder what happens if the wind became stronger and we ran out of fuel mid air. Actually wind eased off and there was very strong indication that we were going to make it.

When we approached near runway, visibility was poor but we still saw iceberg floating on the ocean. When I saw them my body just shook with excitement. The long waited day was about to come. We landed smoothly. When I got out of the plane, there was strong cold wind flowing. My ears and chicks start to ache instantly. I was moderately dressed as a result it was almost unbearable. While stepping down the aircraft stairs, I saw this huge glacier only 200m or so away. It was magnificent. At northern end there were greenish iceberg floating on the ocean. There are no words to describe the beauty of it.

Steve Marshall, Rothera base commander welcomed us and took us to the base. We had to cross the runway to get to the base. It was about 5 mins walk but felt like forever because of aching ear and chick. Absolutely freezing!

Rothera base of the British Antarctic Survey

We went inside the base. God! That felt good. It was heated to about 20degrees. My chick and ear came back alive. While inside we received arrival briefing concerning health and safety of the base station by base commander. We arrived in right moment too. It was just time for lunch. I was getting hungry and headed straight to dinning hall. Dinning hall was on first floor with stunning view of South beach and Glacier. A part of glacier was about to fall off. Sun light was passing through the crack and it was literally glowing in greenish colour. While standing for the que to get the lunch, I didn’t stop for a second from looking outside. Just below the glacier there was bay and had few icebergs floating. There was the runway between glacier and the base station. I was surprised to see that around base station and runway there was no snow but stones. I got to the buffet lunch. Food was good.

After lunch we were told where our rooms were. Mine was in the building called “Gaint’s house”. I went to check the room first. There were 2 bunk beds and total of 4 beds. There was a wardrobe, a table and a chair. I was sharing with a Air Mechanic. I carried my luggage in the room with great struggle since it was fairly heavy and little stones were making my walk difficult. During lunch I setup plans with Peter and Neil to visit the radar site after we unload ourselves. Peter was our customer from University of Bath. Neil was British Antarctic Survey (BAS) engineer. They were there to help us out to install the radar.
(To be continued....)
To go to next part(part 3) of travel logueclick here

बाँकी अंश...

A Trip of Lifetime ( Part 1)

-Pramod Aryal

It was the 31st of January 2005. That was the day I began my extraordinary journey to Antarctica. My first leg of journey started on 11th of January that is when I left Adelaide for the trip to Kathmandu with my wife. We got to Kathmandu on 12th and I spent most of my time attending wedding ceremonies and catching up with relatives till the day I left for my trip of the life time.

After saying heartfelt goodbye to my family, my flight left Kathmandu bound for London at 2pm on 31st of January. There was exhausting 6 hours transit in Bangkok which I found very hard to spend. After total of 22 hours of flight and roaming in transit lounge in Bangkok, I finally arrived Heathrow airport. My brother-in-law caught me up at airport and we went to his house. A news also broke through that King of Nepal had taken over the country by sacking the cabinet and the phone line was cut off and airport was shut down. If I was a day late, I would have missed out my trip of the life time.

After having a delicious meal prepared by my cousin Deepty, I left their house to make my way to Brize Norton Airport near Oxford. I took trains and the taxi to get to the RAF base. By this time I was very tired. I had trouble waking up while waiting in transit lounge for the flight. Eventually I boarded the aircraft and we were on the way to Falkland Islands. After 8 hours of flight we stopped at Ascension Island at the middle of Atlantic Ocean. I must admit Ascension Island was the ugliest place that I have ever been. There were neither trees nor grass. There were only gravelled hills and land. After 2 hours of transit, we were on the way to Falkland Islands. When we arrived at the Islands, there was very high wind. Aircraft was literally rocking when it was stand still. The ground crew struggle to unload baggage. My first impression of Falkland was the feel of being middle of nowhere. There was grass land extended as far as I could see. It was cold and windy. I did not see any tree. I caught a bus to get to Stanley the capital of Falkland Islands. Bus ride took 45 mins to get to Stanley. Stanley was a small village by the side of the Harbour along side a hill. It is small but had a taste. My hotel room was awesome with the view of harbour. I was extremely tired by the time I got to Stanley after very long journey from Kathmandu and went to bed with plans to explore Stanley a day after.


The FalkLands Island Information Centre

Next morning, started my day with greasy English breakfast. I always wonder how English can eat such a greasy breakfast everyday. For me it was a change. I loved it. After all I was getting sick of the food in planes. Stanley didn’t have much to offer other than its harbour view. It was windy almost everyday. There were a couple of grocery stores, a bank, a post office and few gift shops. For next 6 days or so I just wondered through the streets up and down the hilly road, stroll around the gifts shop. Upland Goose hotel where I was staying was pleasant with harbour views. I spent most of the time there doing work in my computer. Actually first three days I had double bedded room with en-suite bathroom with harbour view from the window. It was lovely room. Unfortunately after 3 days I had to move to average twin room. On 6th of February Wayne Hocking from Canada arrived in Falkland. Wayne was our company’s co-partner. He was accompanying me for the trip to Antarctica.

He came from LansChile flight through Santiago. Lucky him he travels in Canadian passport. I also had my flight setup in last minute to fly through Santiago. There was an overnight stay in Santiago. It would have been great since I had not been there before. Unfortunately Nepalese passport is not very popular in the world and I could not get visa in time. As a result flight plan changed to UK Falkland on RAF flight.

( To Be Continued)
To go to next part(part 2) of travel logueclick here

बाँकी अंश...