Best Boondoggle Ever!

You only get to go to Pole if you have been here 3 seasons, so this was a big day for me. I know all the pilots because part of my job is to drive them to and from the airfields and to and from the planes. The weather was terrible when we took off, which will come into play later on in this story...

They invited us into the cockpit - so cool!

The inside of the LC-130

I sat next to the window, which unfortunately also was right next to the men's urinal (shielded only by a flimsy curtain - that is, when the men even decided to pull it all the way shut!) P. U.!

This was the lady's room. Again, just a curtain pulled around...

Before we even come to a stop, they open the back of the plane. We knew instantly that it was well below zero.

Me looking down on the official South Pole.

We had 30 minutes to take in the sights while the plane unloaded fuel for the long winter at Pole.

South Pole Station is raised up so it doesn't get buried as quickly as the other stations.

It was startling and marvelous to see plants at the greenhouse!

Wow, they have a great gym! The whole station felt like a distant space outpost. Very modern, but very small in the midst of so much flat white nothingness. Some of the folks there seemed a tiny bit eccentric. One guy came up to me and spoke very loudly and slowly, asking, "Do you speak English?" I answered him in clipped Spanish  :)

Heading back to the plane, oblivious to what lay ahead of us.

2 hours into the flight, we were told we have been diverted to CTAM field camp! (Planes being diverted in Antarctica is quite rare.)

Balmy, windless, with 360 degree views. The camp staff greeted us with hugs. Several of the camp staff had worked for Scott at AGAP, so I knew quite a few of them.

Then we were fed tea and homemade ginger cookies. (Later on in this adventure I spent hours in the kitchen doing pots and pans to help out, since we doubled the size of the camp.)

Then they loaded us on these plastic sleds and took us way up into the mountain. The skidoo ride was TERRIFYING because we were going VERY fast and the sled was squirrelly. If it tipped over, it would have been an ugly way to go - the "snow" is really just white rough  ice.

Scientists have found many dinosaur fossils near CTAM.

Technically, this was the first time I set foot on the mainland of Antarctica (McMurdo is on Ross Island).

We got to hike down to look at pieces of blue quartz.



The Rocks had an Easter Island feel to them, as if watching the eons of time pass without regard to the human race.



My clumsy attempt at a panorama

When they said we would be staying the night in tents, I wasn't ecstatic. Eeks, no toothbrush, washcloth, tweezers,or  eyeliner, not to mention undies or a pillow.

Everyone in the camp sleeps in tents except the Dr. and the helo pilots...for 2.5 months!

After lunch, some blue sky, meaning we can fly home.

I got to be in the cockpit when we took off. So many gauges and gears and such, yet it all looked like 1940s technology.

The navigator showed me how he works with radar and maps. I saw Erebus an hour before we landed. My bed felt exquisite that night. This trip was the highlight of my season!