The Waiting Game
Today started out as a beautiful sunny and warm day. Then it quickly reverted to the standard cold, wet and windy weather we have become accustomed to. Really not much to write about today. I spent much of the day updating the software on my computer. For some reason I thought it was a good idea to erase the hard drive in my laptop the day I was leaving. I did not get everything loaded back in and have been struggling with a really slow internet connection to get all the updates loaded in. I think I am finally done. But we’ll see what happens.
After breakfast Ron and I walked down to the square to take some photos and do some souvenir shopping. It must be the last day of school for the local kids before summer holidays because there were numerous classes out at the square to get a class photo. All the students wear uniforms so they looked quite good for their photos. I even saw several school busses driving down the street loaded with kids and decorated with balloons and signs. Everyone was honking their horn and celebrating. It looked like a fun time.
There is a huge monument in the square with several different bronze statues on it. Just as in Russia there is one statue that is believed to provide good luck and most people that walk by rub their hand on the foot of the statue. Most of the statue is the dark colour of bronze that has been exposed to the elements for years. However, the foot is as shiny and bring as it was the day it was made. This is the sweet spot as they say.
Just as we were returning to the hotel the Norwegian South Pole team was getting on the bus to go to the airport. There are several very young people on the trip with very little or almost no polar or even expedition experience. I find it interesting that people elect to undertake such a big challenge without first gaining, what I would consider, the appropriate experience first. They plan to ski to the South Pole for December 14th. This is the day that 100 years ago Roald Amundsen became the first person to reach the South Pole. As he was Norwegian this is a big event in Norway and big celebrations are planned at the South Pole on the 14th. The Prime Minister of Norway will be flying in for the festivities. Once the party is over, the team plans to kite ski across Antarctica for an additional 14 days to make a complete crossing. When I asked some of the members how much kite skiing experience they had they said “none”. Interesting I thought.
At 4:00 ALE came by to weigh our expedition bags and to take them to the plane. This is a
good sign as it indicated that they think we will fly tomorrow. We are allowed a total of 160kg of cargo for the flight and we can is around 150km so we have weight to spare. They will take these bags to the plane and load them on with all the other bags that are going to Antarctica so that the plane is ready to go at a moment’s notice. They will call us at 9:30 tomorrow morning to let us
know what time we will fly. They said there is a 90% chance all will be a go for tomorrow.
We just got back from dinner. We tried a new place tonight that had an Italian focus. It was pretty good. I had Gnocchi in a cream sauce. We also found a Chinese restaurant that did not look too bad. Saturday night they have an all you can eat buffet for 3,000pesos (about $6.00). The food was quite inexpensive and that gave us pause as it appeared to be too inexpensive. Therefore, we elected for the Italian restaurant.
Soon it will be off to bed and then waiting once again to see if we fly. Chances are good this time.
Summit Life!
Scott out.