Latest News
05.01.10
Still looking good
You know that scene in Jaws where they're comparing scars and injuries in the boat? Well, that sounds a little like what's going on at Patriot Hills right now. And the good news is that the girls are still looking good - even if Kylie (New Zealand) does say so herself in today's PodCast. Steph (Cyprus) also has an update for us.
Hot off the press too are photos from the Pole. There's one above and I'll dish out a few more over the coming days.
Lastly, there's a party and you're all invited! The Kaspersky Lab Commonwealth Antarctic Welcome Home takes place next Monday 11th, 6.30pm at The Commonwealth Club, 25 Northumberland Avenue, London, WC2N 5AP. We need to have an idea of numbers so please RSVP tim@commonwealthexpedition.com if you fancy popping along.
Over to the girls...
Kylie's PodCast:
Link to Podcast
Kylie's PodCast in writing:
"Hi, it's Kylie from New Zealand. We're at Patriot Hills still. We were supposed to fly out today but the weather's not so good. It's really low cloud and there's quite strong winds and its snowing lightly. It's one of the colder days here. We're feeling OK, we've been getting fed up, eating lots of lovely food.
I went for a ski around behind the hills. There's a marathon course out of Patriot Hills so I had a bit of ski around there. Some of the girls are sleeping. Some are reading. A couple of the girls went for a walk up one of the hills yesterday. We finally don't have a lot of jobs to do and just a little bit of R&R.
It's still cold. We're still all bundled up. But we're very happy we don't have to wear those gorilla masks over our faces every day the minute we pop out of the tent. Some other people have made it back from the cold since we've been here, and we can compare stories and we can also compare injuries. Some guys, a couple of guys have got really bad sunburn and frostnip on their faces, they're all scabby and pussy and just really, oh my goodness, it looks terrible. Another guy's lost his thumb. He's got frost nip on the end of his thumb and it's come off, and everybody can't believe how good we look for like and how well we've looked after ourselves. So that's really great. We really have done well.
A lot of these people. Not all of them, but a lot of them have been guided and had two or three resupplies so they've been carrying 15-20 kilos and 25 kilos max and we've been taking 40 to 60 kilos. And of course as we approached the Pole we were carrying all of our poo, so we were really quite heavy. I'm just so proud of everyone because our girls, a lot of them are so small and, gosh, we've done well as far as being really small and strong, so that's really pretty cool.
We really have shown that woman can do anything. It doesn't matter what shape or size you are or where you're from. I think it's pretty neat. If you want to do something just get out there and do it. Have a crack.
Alright, well that's me from Patriot Hills. We will hopefully be flying out tomorrow. Well, not "hopefully" because I think it's pretty cool here, but flying out in about 24 hours perhaps when we're all clear. So we'll just wait and see."
Steph's PodCast:
Link to Podcast
Steph's PodCast in writing:
"Hi everyone, this is Steph. I'm calling from Patriot Hills, Antarctica. We're still here. We were meant to fly out today, but the Ilyushin airplane which comes in from Punta hasn't arrived on our end. It's not that it's extremely bad. It's just there's a lot of low cloud over the blue ice runway, therefore it makes it a bit difficult for the plane to land and it's a risk that ALE wouldn't want to take.
We're just enjoying the hospitality of the ALE staff and good food, good company. Hearing everyone's stories about how they got involved or expeditions they've been on and all that. It's been an enjoyable time and I think we're all trying to get ourselves sorted so that we can get to London and enjoy our home coming party.
We're here as well with the Eugene Kaspersky who has been absolutely wonderful. He is the soul and life of the party. And his team as well have been taking some great photos. So all in all we're all well. Looking forward to getting onto the next point of the expedition."