If Cape Town is the gateway to the Antarctic, Novo is the hub of Dronning
Maud Land. The point were Germans, Norwegians, Fins, Russians, South
Africans, Indians, and recently also Belgians arrive to get redistributed
via feeder flights to their respective research stations. Novo is not a
fancy place: an airstrip of 3 km long on the ice on which an Ilyushin 76,
tents in yellow, red and blue fully equipped with heat blowers.
It all started at 1900h in Cape Town, the call for confirmation of the
flight, the green light, the Gogogogo!! – ready to embark on yet another
adventure. Checking out of the hotel, getting luggage ready, a quick meal,
drive to the airport, checking in for… yes, a flight to Antarctica, listed
on the boards between flight to Johannesburg, London and other sensibly
exotic destinations. And thus boarding it is: through duty free, the usual
lounge behaviour (a last drink, a last visit to civilized bathroom
facilities, the last text messages being sent home), and off we go. Getting
on board of the Ilyushin erases all similarities with conventional flights.
A cabin devoid of the usual frills, tons of hand luggage, and two 6 feet
tall Russian blokes instead of charming air hostesses. After 5 hours of
crammed flight, the utterly lively in-flight entertainment (the complete
work of Sir David Attenborough) was interrupted by a screen mentioning
"please, put your Antarctic clothes on". Imagine that at one time, 50
Norwegians, Germans, Belgians, Japanese, Russians, Indians rushed to the
back of the plane, trying to get a hold on that big bag full of polar gear.
Further try to picture the same crowd, in the still heated air plane,
changing in all possible, and preferably most uncomfortable positions to
thick, fleece lined Gore-Tex stuff, some being careful enough to put on
hats, gloves, and goggles at once, just to make sure to be ready in time.
There are no windows in the Ilyushin, so the only way for passengers to
catch a glimpse of what happens outside is the projection of the real-time
image fed by a camera under the nose of the aircraft. Besides offering the
advantage to spare of from air sickness (from ourselves and our fellow
travellers), this is the first view we caught of the polar ice: a mixture of
white with white, clouds, ice and air. It is a quite uncomfortable feeling
that seeing nothing on the screen may eventually lead to a touchdown on a
marked airstrip in the snow.
Once on the ground, the doors swing open, the fresh air gets in and a spark
of intense light reaches the interior of the aircraft. Hesitating we get
down on the ice, tired, uncomfortable, and completely disoriented by the
sudden change in temperature. The temperature may be -11°C, the wind blows
steadily and there is no sun to warm us all. It is 0400h in the morning and
bright daylight. Not much time to get over it, as the plane needs to be
unloaded and all the cargo divided over the different participating
expeditions. Unlike civilised airports, the cargo handlers are nothing more
that ourselves.
Finally after a couple of hours of work we are rewarded with a hot coffee in
the mess tent. It is 0700h in the morning and the only thing we want to do
is to go to bed!
Contrary to the initial plan, we won't be leaving Novo today: the weather is
not especially bright, and would not allow our landing at Utsteinen. This
day in no-man's land passes by through meals and naps.
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