Yesterday I got to the airport at 6:30 am for a 9 am flight to the coast of Antarctica. The flight ended up being delayed until around 12:30 pm. We flew down in a LC-130 cargo plane operated by the US Air Force. The flight took about 8 hours and was not comfortable at all! The seats are essentially canvas folded out of the wall with cargo net backs. And the quarters are quite close. You will have to wait for some pictures to see exactly what I mean.
The first 4 hours it was not a pleasant experience, but then the clouds cleared and we could see out the window. It was absolutely breathtaking, a true spectacle of nature’s raw beauty. As far as I could see were ice bergs, mountains, crevasses, and the edge of the ice shelf. I spent a good portion of 2 hours just staring out the window. I also took lots of photos but there isn’t enough internet bandwidth here to post them today. In any case I don’t think photos could truly do the scene justice.
Stepping off the plane, it was warm! They are having record highs in McMurdo, yesterday it was 39 degrees. As a result, many of the vehicles got stuck in slush and we had to wait out on the runway for about an hour. From the runway, located on the ice shelf, we took a short bus ride up to the station. The sun is up 24 hours a day here so I though I might have trouble sleeping, but I hit the pillow and was out cold.
This morning I have been catching up on some emails and taking care of some logistics for the next leg of the journey. In the afternoon, another IceCuber, Graham, and I went down to the point of McMurdo bay. At the very tip of the point is the hut that Robert F Scott built on his Antarctic expedition. I took many pictures of the hut, the station and the bay. Hopefully I will also get those uploaded soon.
Right now I am scheduled to fly to the South Pole on Jan. 5th so I have a couple days here to explore. I will post another update before I leave and fingers crossed – some pictures. In the mean time check out the gallery for some pictures of my time is Christchurch. The travel map is also updated so you can see where McMurdo Station is located.