At last, the weather allowed for the convoy to leave for the traverses. Apart from the BELISSIMA team and their guardian angel Jesko (driver, mechanic, paratrooper, ad interim medic, safety checker.just to let the significant others know the guys are in trustworthy handsJ), Alain is also off to the coast with two others, for a little reconnaissance work.
Thus off they were this morning, and sure enough, in the meantime the wind is back at full speed with a thick layer of clouds masking the horizon to the north: their journey will be no walk in the park! This is the first convoy to leave this year, and there was something strangely endearing about it. Apart from the busy bees already up at the station for the building works, most of us lingered around to wave them goodbye. There was quite some picture taking, hand shaking, last minute mailing, filming and hugging, and then we watched the convoy set off.
But now the BELISSIMA team is off to do what they eventually came for. Enough of versatile helping out (much appreciated by everyone), endless socializing and entertaining (idem): data-collection it is. Or at least, it will be after their 20 hours-or-so-journey in a container. If everything works out as planned (why does it feel like a complete delusion to write this sentence?!?), there will be daily contact with the field teams, at both 09.00 AM and 09.00 PM through the satellite phones. Some of these precious minutes will be spent feeding info for this blog -I do realize the suspense of "will the ice drill make it through the ice is quite a cliffhanger!-,
which I hope will indeed somehow work out. If not, I might have to let my creativity run wild, and considering the last results of that (Maritime Mousse.) I have a hunch this might not have been the original intent of my appointment as "invited redactor".
Nathalie
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