Bag Drag, flight, CHC
For the first time in six months when I say "I'm here" I don't mean Antarctica.
The night before I left I had "bag drag" where I walked with my bags up to the Air Transport Office (ATO) in full ECW (extreme cold weather) gear. Both my bags and I had to be weighed. I had a checked bag full of my 40lbs of ECW and I had another bag with all my stuff in it that I would carry on the plane. We're still required to wear Big Red the parka, lined Carheart work pants and our huge issued boots on the plane just in case something goes wrong on the ride out to the runway.
After some doubts about weather the C-17 that would carry me back to the real world left Christchurch and headed down to the Ice. I was at Pegasus Field at 8pm; in time to see it land. The handfull of incoming winter-overs got off, I was handed a flight lunch "flunch" in a paper bag and climbed on the plane. When they closed the door to the windowless cargo hold I saw my last sliver of Antarctic light.
The flight arrived at 2am local time and I was one of the first off the plane and through customs. I found my bags easily and pushed a cart a few hundred yards to the Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) to turn in my 40lbs of Antarctic gear.
I've been told smells are amazingly strong when you get back to the real world and they definately are. On the Taxi ride to the hotel last night I could smell the tires through the open window. It's almost overpowering to walk through the Christchurch city gardens, smell the pollen and see a flowing river with several species of birds in it. I've heard the best part about Antarctica is leaving it and the intensity of seeing so much stuff and so many strange people around makes me see why people say that.
The night before I left I had "bag drag" where I walked with my bags up to the Air Transport Office (ATO) in full ECW (extreme cold weather) gear. Both my bags and I had to be weighed. I had a checked bag full of my 40lbs of ECW and I had another bag with all my stuff in it that I would carry on the plane. We're still required to wear Big Red the parka, lined Carheart work pants and our huge issued boots on the plane just in case something goes wrong on the ride out to the runway.
After some doubts about weather the C-17 that would carry me back to the real world left Christchurch and headed down to the Ice. I was at Pegasus Field at 8pm; in time to see it land. The handfull of incoming winter-overs got off, I was handed a flight lunch "flunch" in a paper bag and climbed on the plane. When they closed the door to the windowless cargo hold I saw my last sliver of Antarctic light.
The flight arrived at 2am local time and I was one of the first off the plane and through customs. I found my bags easily and pushed a cart a few hundred yards to the Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) to turn in my 40lbs of Antarctic gear.
I've been told smells are amazingly strong when you get back to the real world and they definately are. On the Taxi ride to the hotel last night I could smell the tires through the open window. It's almost overpowering to walk through the Christchurch city gardens, smell the pollen and see a flowing river with several species of birds in it. I've heard the best part about Antarctica is leaving it and the intensity of seeing so much stuff and so many strange people around makes me see why people say that.
posted by Adam at 9:43 PM
2 Comments:
Sounds great! Would you go back?
Back to Antarctica? Definately!
I have no regrets about spending 6 months down there.
The difficult thing for me would be to find a job that gets me closer to working on renewable energy or green design which is what I love to do. Difficult but not impossible.
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