Friday, January 23

It was a crazy morning. We got up at 6:30 to tear down the tents, but it was still so windy we were afraid we couldn't, or if we did the helo would get cancelled. So, we waited until 8:00, which is when the helo flight ops meeting of the day is, and called in to find out they were launching at 8:15 to come and get us at 9. It would just pick us 6 passengers plus any cargo they could fit in, and then do the other cargo later as they could. The sling-load may have to wait.

So, we went crazy tearing down 5 tents in less than 1 hour, and finished preparing everything for shipment. For example, sealing up the last poop bucket. That is a sure sign you have reached a point of no return. We were completely ready about 90 seconds before the helo was in sight. We were able to fit in quite a bit of cargo along with us, and stacked the rest for a second helo that would arrive later that day, and tied up the 2 sling loads in case, but the pilot agreed it was too windy and said it may have to wait.

Not a word was spoken the entire way back to McMurdo by us. Usually there is a lot of chatter over the headseats. Everyone was contemplating the bittersweet experience of leaving Bull Pass and the Dry Valleys. Back to civilization, but away from an unforgettable landscape.

When we got back, the helo techs unloaded our stuff, and said they would take it up to the BFC for us, where we have to unload and clean and go through it. This gave us enough time to get checked into new dorm rooms, take a shower, and have lunch.

This didn't turn out to well, thankfully. This is my hairdo after 15 days without a shower. What a relief to have a toilet, shower, bed sheets, and pillow. Even though my shampoo instructions say "lather, rinse, repeat", the first lather didn't really take. Much grease and sand......




I went downstairs to do some laundry, because I either had to wash my socks and underwear, or throw them away. From out the balcony near the laundry room, I noticed a tanker for re-fueling had followed in the ice-breaker that arrived the day we left for the field:



The best ice-breakerrs are all from Norway, of course!




The tanker:


Another view:


After the tanker is done, a cargo vessel is scheduled to arrive. Sadly, no penguins followed the open water in. We have only 2 days left to sight penguins.


We headed over to the BFC, and found our second load of cargo was arriving, so we had our work cut out for us. That's was ok with us, because the more we did today (Fri.) the less we would have to do Sat. And, we have to pack our bags for loading by Sat. night, because we are scheduled to fly out to NZ Monday morning.

We broke out our sleep kits so they could send necessary parts to laundry, store cots, etc. We had to wash all of our kitchen kit equipment, stoves, coolers etc. That took over an hour. We washed pee bottles in bleach, an interesting experience.....We had to haul our recyclables to the correct dumpsters, return electronic, solar, GPS, and other various things to other buildings. There's just always a lot more stuff than you think. Ziggy took one last chance to enjoy his sleeping bag before it was taken away from him:



The last thing was to set up the Kitchen tent inside a building and scrub the flooors and walls for the next occupants. After drying out overnight, we have to pack it up and return to the BFC. I am standing in the place we are going to set up, but first took a photo of a mini-bike that is in this building for some reason.....



We were finally done with everything that was brought in shortly after 5.

Fortunately, we didn't have to use dog sleds this year. No one knew the last time these were used:


I spent part of the evening after dinner getting caught up on these blog entries, since I hadn't made one in two weeks. I should get caught up tomorrow. All we have to do is deal with the sligh-load, which is mostly big stuff that we don't have to deal with.