Latest News
05.12.09
Sun Dogs
The tension is tangible even over the distorted tones of a satellite phone. The team are but a few Antarctic inches from their re-supply cache at the Thiel Mountains where new food and clean clothes await. Felicity (UK) updates us.
Felicity (UK)'s PodCast:
Link to Podcast
Felicity's PodCast in writing:
"Hello everyone, it's Felicity, and doing an update for day 14, and we've had a couple of days of change really here in the Antarctic. Up until now we've been heading southwest every day, almost parallel to the Pensacola Mountains. Which we have been able to see in the distance. But yesterday we quite literally turned a corner. Our one and only change in direction that will have the entire expedition. But we turned to the left, and we're now heading exactly south direct for the South Pole.
So the change in the direction has made a bit of a difference to what we're experiencing every day. Most importantly the position of the sun. We got quite used to the sun being in one place in the morning, and then working it's way around us to be in another place in the evening, but now it's all changed and the sun's in a different place in the morning, which is a little bit different.
But the sun today has very short rainbows either side of the sun, which are called 'Sun Dogs', and they're just like rainbows but they're caused by ice being in the air rather than water. But it was really pretty, so it was lovely to be skiing along watching the Sun Dogs either side of the sun as it changed.
It's been different weather as well the last couple of days. Been quite cloudy, so there isn't any shadows on the snow, which has made it quite difficult because you can't see where all the lumps and bumps are. It's called flat light and it just makes everything look completely white rather than being able to see the sastrugi. We've actually been tripping over them and not been able to see them ahead of us. So it's making it a little bit harder.
It's also been snowing a bit which is surprisingly uncommon considering we're in the Antarctic. So we're actually quite privileged to be getting so much snow. It snows settling on the ground and forming sort of thick layers, and as we walk across it the snow's settling with a big kind of "Voomph!" noise, and it feels like the snow underneath you is sort of dropping away. It was a little bit unnerving because at the moment we're scouting around the edge of a known crevasse are. So every time the snow settles and we hear this Voomph noise I think everybody's heart sort of misses a beat. But now that we know what it is we're prepared for it and we're sort of getting used to it I think.
Tomorrow is an exciting day because we're due to arrive at our resupply which is at a place called Thiels, and it's very exciting because it means clean underwear, more food, and a few special treats that we packed for ourselves when we packed the resupply back in Patriot Hills. So I think everyone's going to be racing tomorrow because we all want to get there as quick as possible. So we're looking forward to that. But we'll let you know how we get on and speak to you again tomorrow. Lots of love to everyone at home. Bye."
Photo by Robert Hollingworth