I don't think we did anything constructive on December 20 apart from getting ready to go to the South Pole. We had to take our bags to the check-in place that evening. This event is called "bag drag" in Antarctic lingo.
We left McMurdo on December 21, 2010 around 9.00 am. LC 130 was like a huge hippo with a belly full of cargo and a couple pf snow machines probably caterpillars. Our carry-on bags were strapped in the center and about 15 of us sat on the side seats. I was the only female in the group and I got a seat at a very end on one side, where it will be convenient for me to go to the back of the plane to use the ladies toilet if I want to. For men, there was a urinal at the other end with a big curtain around it.. :D Remember, it is mainly a military cargo plane..
It wasn’t really comfortable take off for me as everybody was sliding towards the tail end where I was sitting or rather falling off from the seat. The take off time was quiet longer as the plane takes off from the ice and thus needs a longer runway to comfortably get in the air. Once we were up, I changed my place to another empty spot and dozed off for a while. The bunny boots have a small valve for altitude pressure control of the air inside the boots. That air acts as a good insulator but needs to be controlled at different altitudes. So, we had to leave the valve open. It was so loud inside the plane that we had to use ear plugs. Slowly, everyone started moving around, taking pictures from the two small windows available on the plane. Some of us visited the cockpit as well. It was an incredible view from up there.. We crossed the trans-antarctic mountain ranges, some glaciers etc. and then we saw all white flat landscape. I got the worst seat while taking off and the best seat while landing back. I got to sit in the cockpit during the landing. It was just breathtaking experience. The Amundsen-Scott South Pole station getting bigger from a tiny little spot on horizon was one of the scenes I will never forget. The landing on the ice was pretty smooth. In fact, it was so smooth that we really didn’t realize when we were on ground.
Me in cockpit
When we landed, I locked the valves on my bunny boots, stepped outside and had a blast of cold, clean air hitting my lungs instantly. I had to be very slow while walking towards the station from the landing place. We had an orientation, lunch and then enough rest. The first 2-3 days are very crucial while acclimatizing to a high altitude place like the Pole. I saw the South Pole from the galley, our dining place but I was not ready to venture out in the cold right away. That was a wise decision and thus, I could go out the next day.
I will never forget this day because I had one of the most amazing flight experiences, I landed on the South Pole on a special day: Summer solstice of the southern hemisphere and winter solstice of the northern hemisphere. It was literally the biggest and longest day of my life. :D
2 comments:
Runway kuthe hota plane sathi? :O Kahi disatch nahiye tasa
ahe ki nahi maja?! The pilots know exactly where to land.. They do have a designated runway. In fact, at the South Pole, everything is north and that point is South. So, the way they have directions is that, they consider the Runway as their reference. It is 20 deg away from the Greenwich meridian line. So, close to runway is the North-South line at the Pole! :)
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