Take 2

Bad weather at Barneo again left us waiting in the hotel but all of a sudden the call came through to get to the airport in 10mins! I had been attempting to shave but the razor in the hotel’s complementary female hygiene kit was no match for my beard - not that evident in my final photo before departure:

There was no time for security today so we just walked onto the runway via a side gate, on to the waiting Antonov

and then off to Barneo with an absolute minimum of fuss – amazing how quick these things can be when Health & Safety doesn’t get in the way!

The flight was pretty calm and by the time we got to Barneo it was bathed in sunlight with no sign of the recent storm – this was our first taste of polar conditions and even though the sun was up it was down into the mid -20s. The North Pole is also quite a humid place and it is interesting to see how much of an impact that has on how cold it actually feels. There was a very welcome heated mess tented where we were given some warm beef stew and a short presentation about Barneo including its facilities.

 

Then it was time to load the helicopters with our gear and the dogs who were now out of their kennels and itching to get going - made for a very warm and pungent ride to our starting point which was back at 89'.

 

We walked for an hour or so to get the blood flowing before camp as well as to re-check our gear in action and get our first taste of moving at the pole. All was going well until I managed to take a nasty fall just before camp.  The others had swept all but a last covering snow off from a sheet of steep ice so when I got on it my skis shot down the short slope but my sled held my hips back and so my feet shot up in air and I landed pretty hard on my elbow - I was a bit concerned as to what I had done to, especially once it started to swell but it seems to be manageable...