18 October--Daily Routine?

Cold, windy and harsh.  Just what you'd expect from Antarctica. The good weather there for a few days was just a teaser.  But the views are always phenomenal.  The Royal Society Mountains across the Sound are 50 to 60 miles away and you'd think you could ski out to them in a few hours.

I get to drive up to the Golfball several times a day and the views from up there are the best on station.  It's also the windiest.  There is a detachment of 4 Kiwi Army carpenters building a stairway project up there and they're exposed to the worst of the worst weather here.  I certainly can't begrudge them their morning, lunch, and afternoon rides down to the Galley for tea and a warm-up. The gusts up there can drive you sideways as you walk and they don't have much protection beyond their ECW gear.  I love the chance to take in the views of the glacier and Mt. Erebus.  At 12,400 feet, it's almost the height of the San Francisco Peaks at home.

This morning was the first day that the C-47s are here.  They're also known as DC-3s.  They were one of the workhorse cargo planes of World War II, carrying cargo over the Hump from India to China.  I rode one in the Amazon in 1970 and thought it was pretty old even then.  Several companies have been scouting out Third World countries and snatching them up.  One of the companies takes them up to Sandpoint, Idaho and completely tears them apart and refurbishes them.  They're in high demand for places like this, anywhere that needs a tough and reliable tail-dragger.  Not bad for a 70 year old plane!



C-47 or DC-3 on the Ice Runway



The Antarctic Heritage Trust on Scott Base helps preserve the old buildings of the Continent.



The Antarctic version of Banksy's tweaking of Matisse's Water Lillies.