Final preparations
Published on 08.11.2011 - The South Pole Jubilee Expedition
Kite training on the beach of Punta Arenas
© Expedition website
Let's enter for once into the details of a day of final preparations of an expediiton in Punta Arenas hotel.
From Rory O'Connor's diary :
7th November : Weighed the sledge with the ski attachments and it comes in at 6 kgs. Food for the first 35 days weighed 43kgs. There will also be fuel, tent, safety equipment and all my personal clothes and sleeping bags. The target weight is less than 77 kgs. Using cheap bathroom scales in the hotel is not filling me with confidence. All the bags have to go to the logistics company tomorrow where they will be weighed.
Christian the team leader has been through everyones kit with the purpose of reducing weight and duplication. Its been harsh in some instances but now the team has stuck to the original kit list for better or worse. Indispensable items include photos, letters from home and surprise parcel for Christmas day. There is also a briefing tomorrow at the Logistics company where we will no doubt be put under no illusions how difficult the trip will be, how cold it will be, how difficult the insertion and extraction flights are and nevertheless don´t forget to enjoy yourselves.
I´m happy not to have any music with me on the trip and I am pretty much the exception. If you can´t use the time on the ice to daydream yourself into strange and wonderful places when can you? Its not a deep philosophical question but day to day life rarely gives time for reflection and contemplation. My luxury is a book called Sophies World, which is indeed a philosophical text or rather the history of philosophy in a fictional setting. I seem to remember the stoics and wonder how stoical we will all have to be during the trip.
The weather forecast changes daily if not hourly. Before going to bed tonight it seems that there could well be a weather wind over Tuesday / Wednesday for us. That would keep us right on track and a fantastic start to the expedition. Waiting in Punta Arenas with all the preparation done and waiting for a phone call to come would be tough.
Now some final butterflies at the thought of going. This is probably a good thing as it is making me double and triple check everything. After we go there is no chance to pick anything else up! Having said that I am feeling confident and now really looking forward to starting.
Lastly, Linn, one of the girls has a gluten allergy so made her own cakes to bring on the trip. The tin was spotted after first batch came out by the hotel dog!
