Din dhal jaye par raat na jaye....

These lines of a famous Hindi film song aptly suit the mood here now. The polar nights have started on 20th May 2008. The sun has gone down for the last time, after casting long, dark, gloomy shadows all over the icy landscape. We all watched it disappear behind the Schirmacher range. It was a bit cloudy, but not enough to deprive us of the opportunity to see off the sun. The clouds enhanced the golden glow of the setting sun. I felt like waving it goodbye. We won't see it for the next 2 months now.Many of us captured this once-in-a-lifetime experience on camera. First the ship, then the ALCI flights, then the skuas, then the snow petrels and now even the sun has deserted us leaving us alone to face the long dark, polar winters. But life goes on. Humans are known to take such things in their stride and carry on with their lives. So shall we, while we wait for 23rd July when the sun rises next and showers its warmth on us. The following are the sunset and the sunrise times during the final days before the beginning of the polar night:13th May 08: sunrise- 0934 hrs; sunset- 1244 hrs14th May 08: sunrise- 0941 hrs; sunset- 1237 hrs15th May 08: sunrise- 0950 hrs; sunset- 1229 hrs16th May 08: sunrise- 0959 hrs; sunset- 1220 hrs17th May 08: sunrise- 1008 hrs; sunset- 1210 hrs18th May 08: sunrise- 1020 hrs; sunset- 1158 hrs19th May 08: sunrise- 1035 hrs; sunset- 1144 hrs20th May 08: sunrise- no sunrise; sunset- no sunset

The Words of Our Leader

Our station is like a ship. A ship in sea is a self sufficient unit surrounded by an extremely hostile environment. If the ship goes down, the survival of the people on board is in question. Similarly, our station is a very comfortable and self contained unit in a very hostile environment. As long as the station and its life support systems are running smoothly, we are safe. But if something goes wrong, then there is no chance of survival. So we have to be very alert at all times and take the responsibility of the safety of the station on ourselves.

A Trip into the Antarctica wilderness- V (The Return Trip)

Finally, we were set to leave after a hurried lunch at 3:30 PM amidst shouts of ‘Jai Shri Ram’. It was already dark by now. I was driving the Cauvery with Gaffar. The journey was uneventful till about midnight. After that we had a really tough time. Hemraj Meena’s vehicle that was tugging a 20kl fuel tanker got stuck in the soft snow. Its tracks had dug a pit in the snow. So the tanker had to be unhooked and tugged out by another vehicle. After that was done, I noticed that the temperature of my vehicle had shot up to 120 deg. On opening the bonnet, the fan belt was found to be broken. The team struggled with the repair job in the dark and the biting cold. Finally, after 2 hours of hardship, the job was done. We had already lost 4 hours in these 2 incidents. Later, our vehicle started misbehaving again, but we took a chance to see if it can somehow reach the station. Meena’s vehicle got stuck once again at around 6 in the morning. We were at around the B 10 barrel. Maitri was still 8 hours away from here. So we could reach back only at around 3 in the afternoon. We were fortunate that there were no more breakdowns. I was lucky that there were 2 people in our vehicle. So while I was driving, Gaffar took a snooze, and after the breakdowns, when Gaffar took over the wheels, I could sleep as much as the rotten ‘road’ would permit me. Day break brought some wonderful sceneries, with the approaching mountains forming a beautiful backdrop. I tried to take some videos, but since the temperature outside was -18, a half hour battery back up was discharged in just about 5 min. My ungloved hand was also frozen stiff. Warming up my hand was a painful process. When the sensation started returning, I was relieved that it was not frostbitten.
We slowly meandered our way to Sankalp. We were greatly relieved to reach there. We unhooked the Banjara, Jeevan Jyoti, and the oil tanker and then started for our home, Maitri. This part of the journey was the most painful and the slowest because of the pathetic route. We reached Maitri at 4 PM. It was already dark. We had planned to reach back by 8 AM. So we were late by 8 hours. Maitri never appeared so heavenly as it did that day. We were elated to reach back. We were given a warm welcome. To top it, there was a party that day on the occasion of BRO day. So it was a fantastic end to a very difficult day. It took us 3 days to overcome the tiredness of that day. It was an extremely memorable experience that I will cherish all my life. This convoy has made my trip to Antarctica worth it. As they call it- paisa vasool.

A Trip into the Antarctica wilderness- IV (Life & Work at India Bay)

Next morning, I was woken up by calls for morning tea at around 6:30 AM. There was a good wind and a snow drift going on. There were speculations that work would not be possible. But the wind subsided soon. Our job was to load the containers on the trailers that we were tugging from Maitri, decant the fuel into the fuel containers that we were to carry back, and finally, if possible, to repair the pisten bully that was lying on the shelf in a state of disrepair. The last job was unlikely to be accomplished in this convoy as it was a very low priority job. We had a hearty breakfast of poori subzi left over from the previous day. And it was work time by 8. Except for Mariappan, everyone left for work. I was lost as to what to do since I was not trained to do the kind of work the logistics staff was doing. I could only help them with physical labour and I did that whenever required. Whenever I felt out of work, I picked up my camera and explored the place. There was not much to explore though. There were a lot of containers lying around, half covered with snow. The wind had blown away the snow from the immediate vicinity of the containers. It had created a kind of a moat. The base was on blue ice. On the leeward side of the containers, a lot more snow had accumulated, almost till the top of the containers. One could simply walk to the top of the containers. The containers were lying all over the place, very far from each other. The reason for that was that the closer they are, the more the obstacle for the wind to deposit the snow during the blizzard and more the work that would need to be done to clear the snow. The fuel tankers were lying separately. There was one refugee hut also present there. That was meant for the summer team, so that when they are conducting experiments on the shelf and if a spell of bad weather suddenly strikes and they cannot be evacuated for sometime, they can have some place to seek refuge. The hut was very well equipped with beds and lot of eatables. There was a separate generator for the cabin also present. The dysfunctional pisten bully- Sutlej was lying near the cabin. It was half covered with snow. Snow had also filled up the cabin of the pisten bully. There were 3 cranes lying around as well. They were to be used to lift the containers and place them on the trailers. Apart from these, there was nothing to explore because there was nothing but a vast expanse of snow all around. In the distance, where the sky was clear, the rays of the sun were falling on the snow, giving it a beautiful orange glow. We were just about half a kilometre away from the sea. We could see the edge of the shelf from our location. The ocean should have frozen over by now or so we thought. There was no time to explore that. I was soon asked to replace Mariappan in the Banjara to keep a watch there for any malfunctions so that Mariappan could participate in the logistics operations. That meant that the day was over for me and I could put up my feet and relax. It was one in the afternoon and the sun was about to set. Most of the containers had been loaded by now. The major task now was to decant the fuel. An empty fuel container was loaded on the trailer and 2 generators put to work to speed up the decanting. But there were teething problems. The team was finally free by 5 in the evening. Now the plan for the next day was to try to repair Sutlej, refuel the vehicles, strap an excavator on a trailer and leave for Maitri.
In the evening, everyone was in a relaxed mood. It was Krishnamoorthy’s birthday today- 5 may 08. So there was a celebration. Prawns were fried. Ready to eat chicken biryani was prepared, namkeens were opened and most importantly, there were drinks. Later, there was a movie as well. Lakshya was running house- full that day. We finally dozed off at 10 PM. The next day began similar to the first day. But today it was an absolutely windless day. Since it was cloudy, it was not going to be as cold as it usually is. The last time the convoy was here, the temperatures were in the region of -30 deg C. Now they were around -12. Soon it started to snow as well. That was very light. Strapping of the excavator was over soon. Repairing and the final touches were taking time. I went to the edge of the ice shelf along with Gaffar. The moorings where our ship had moored in the summers were still intact. The sea had frozen over totally, except immediately along the shelf, where the layer of ice was very thin. There were a lot of snow petrels around. They usually migrate by this time.

A Trip into the Antarctica wilderness- III (Approaching India Bay)

Schirmacher Oasis

After crossing the A group of barrels, Gaffar gave me the vehicle to drive. The shelf was still a fair distance away. I had some difficulty in driving since I was not too experienced with the pisten bully and the surface was hard and uneven. So the vehicle was giving a lot of jerks. When I tried to slow down the vehicle, the distance from the vehicles ahead increased. In order to catch up, I used to speed up and in the process, the jerks used to increase. So it was quite difficult for me. Around C7, the nunataks and the Schirmacher hills went out of view. Soft snow increased as we neared the ice shelf. That was because precipitation increases near the coast. So even low intensity blizzards are enough to cause good snow deposition there. Driving had also become easier in soft snow but the speed was slower due to the drag. I was getting used to the pisten bully now. The sight of the convoy winding its way through the icy landscape was awesome. We were like a tiny speck in the vast desert that lay before us. The view of the dark coloured vehicles moving in a serpentine queue against the white landscape provided a striking contrast. It was a very photogenic scene. On the way, we crossed a Russian aircraft which had fallen off the trailer while tugging it to the Russian shelf. It was badly damaged and was seemingly beyond repair. But forget having it repaired, removing it from there is in itself a daunting task. The only way to do it is by crane, and getting the crane there was a huge logistics task. So in all probability, the aircraft will stay there for a long time, and will serve as a route marker. Dusk was now falling. Something surprising was happening. The moment I turned on the headlights, the route ahead marked by the tracks of the vehicles appeared so clear that it appeared like a road. The similarity was truly striking, complete with dividers and footpaths. In fact, I was instinctively taking care not to go off the “road”, as I would do in India. But here that was not required. The alignment was absolutely perfect. Due to the angle at which the light was falling on the snow, even minor undulations in the snow were greatly accentuated. That improved the demarcation of the “road”. At night, the convoy resembled the scene on any of the Indian highways. The pisten bullys with their powerful headlights on resembled trucks on a “road”. During halts for refuelling, the scene resembled that on any highway petrol pump in India, with trucks lined up and 2 or 3 people guiding the trucks and holding the vending hose in their hands. I sometimes hallucinated that I was seeing a dhaba along the “road”, only to realise that here there is nothing for the next 4000 kms. This image of the convoy will stay with me for ever. It was the defining moment of my Antarctica visit so far.

Night Time Driving

Upto C7, our route and the Russian convoy route were the same. But now we took a right turn and the Russian route went left. We were following the GPS for information about our location. For the major part of the way, the GPS points were very close to each other. They were at the most 2 km away. But after reaching the C10 barrel, the distance increased considerably, to about 4-5 km. It took about half an hour to cover the distance. The way to the shelf from here was absolutely straight, to the north. C18 was the last GPS point, and it was 2-3 km away from the ice shelf. We finally reached the shelf at 7:15 PM, as was announced by Krishnamoorthy, who was in the leading vehicle. Nothing could be seen in the dark. We were all looking forward to some food and a good nights rest. But that was still some time away. First the vehicles had to be parked, the Banjara had to be setup, the generator had to be started and meals had to be prepared. The vehicles had to be parked in an orderly manner, some distance away from each other. This was because a snow drift had already started and if there was a blizzard overnight, the vehicles would be all buried in the snow by morning. Then a connection was given to the Banjara from the generator, and the Banjara was heated up. Mariappan was put in charge of preparing the meals during our stay there. He got on the job instantly. Garbage bags were put up, snow was gathered from outside and put into the water heater for melting and a fresh meal was prepared. This consisted of daal and rice. The poori, subzi and boiled eggs supplied to us from the station were put to good use as well. But first it was time for some relaxation. So the drinks were started. By this time, the Banjara was nice and cosy. Everyone was in an upbeat mood inspite of being worn out. We finally went to sleep at around 10 PM. There was a long day of hard work that lay ahead of us the next day.

A Trip into the Antarctica wilderness-II (Navigation)

Navigation was not possible in the conventional manner. In the earlier days, barrels were placed after every kilometre or so and a paper showing the route was handed to everyone. The barrels were numbered. The practice continues even today and the barrels continue to remain in place and they are very helpful, but navigation is now done by a GPS. One can feed the entire route on a GPS and it will show the route, and it will also show your current location and whether we are on the route or we are deviating away from it. It will also tell our speed and the expected time of arrival at the next GPS point. The GPS points were divided into 3 groups- A, B & C. The elevation can also be known using the GPS. But navigation is made easy by the route marking by the first convoy. We share the route with the Russians for a large part of the distance. So if they have done the convoy first, we can follow their tracks. Its a lot different driving in Antarctica. No traffic, no pollution, no signals, no traffic policeman to stop us from overspeeding, and above all- no road. You can drive in any direction that suits you.You can drive over rocks, ice whatever.

A Trip into the Antarctica wilderness- I (The Ice Shelf and Schirmacher Oasis)

The second convoy started on 4th May. We woke up at 2:30 AM and the convoy left after pooja at 4 AM. The rest of the expedition members were awake all night preparing food for the convoy team. We were well stocked up with food for the whole day. It was still dark. Gaffar was driving the pisten bully named Cauvery. I was the co- driver. Ours was the last vehicle in the convoy. The convoy meandered slowly out of Schirmacher. It was raising a lot of dust. I had never known Schirmacher to be so dusty. We were tugging an empty trailer with us. I could not make out our location as it was dark. We were just following the route marked out on the ground. After a bumpy ride, we reached Sankalp at around 5 AM. I could not recognise the place at night. This was the first time I was out of the station in the dark. Except for the lights of the convoy, there was total darkness all around. There was not even that “faint light seen in the distance” we are used to seeing in India. The convoy then moved on after hitching the Banjara living module & Jeevan Jyoti generator. Food packets were also distributed here. The day slowly started breaking. We crossed some Nunataks (mountain peaks jutting out of the glacier) on the way, including the one that marked the site of the Novo runway. From the Russian junction (where the Russian convoy route merged with ours) we began our descent to the ice shelf, leaving the last of the nunataks behind. From the ice shelf, we could see the Schirmacher Oasis. It appeared very close to us though we were 6 hours away from it. Now I got a better idea about the geography of Schirmacher oasis with respect to the rest of Antarctica. Most of Antarctica was like we were seeing it now- absolutely featureless and plane. There were no hills, trees, rocks, boulders- nothing at all. All that could be seen all around was a vast, endless icy landscape. It was truly fascinating. On the ice shelf the thickness of the ice is only a few hundred metres. But on the Antarctica plateau, the height can go above 4000 metres. The ground was an uneven layer of ice. It was uneven because during summers, the ice melts and then refreezes. Gaffar told me that there were streams flowing here in November. During the winters, due to blizzards, the gaps in the ice get filled up and the surface becomes smooth. Due to less intensity of blizzards this year, that did not happen, although the route had improved somewhat since the first convoy. We crossed a few lakes on the way. It is not easy to differentiate them from the blue ice. Now it does not matter since everything is frozen and we can drive over them without any problem, but during the summers, they can be dangerous, since one can drive into the lake without realising it since the colour is the same. The lakes can be differentiated from a chopper very easily. The ice on the ice shelf is called blue ice, due to the colour. It is extremely hard and does not break even under the weight of the pisten bully. This ice is extremely slippery and one cannot walk on it using trekking shoes. Snow boots are absolutely essential. Schirmacher Oasis is a region of very low hills that lay between the ice shelf and the mountainous region to the south of the shelf. The glacier had receded somewhat to uncover it. It was like a nunatak but in the shelf area. There was no other landmark for miles around as far as the eye could see that was similar to Schirmacher.

A Visit By the Grand Old Man of Antarctica

On the 23rd of April 2008, we while having breakfast, we heard a helicopter. We were expecting a visit by the Russian team on 24th, when their ship was expected to reach Russian Bay. But they came a day early.

On going out, we saw the huge bird, MI-8 landing on the helipad. 4 people emerged. One of them was Dr Arnold Budretsky, an 80 year old veteran polarman. He is the oldest person to be still active in Antarctica. He has done 10 winters and 11 summers in Antarctica, apart from having served for 15 years in the Arctic. Out of 10 winters, 3 have been at Vostok, which is the toughest station in Antarctica to winter over in. It is located on the 4000 meters high on the Antarctica ice cap, about 1500 km away from the coast. The lowest temperatures on earth have been recorded at this station. Dr Budretsky was the expedition leader at Vostok in the winter of 1983 when the temperature fell to -89.2ºC, the lowest temperature ever recorded on earth.

His present visit to Antarctica is purely symbolic. He celebrated his 81st birthday on the 15th April. The customs officials at Cape Town could not believe that an 80 year old man is going to Antarctica and they insisted on meeting him personally, something they don’t usually do.

We celebrated Dr Budretsky’s birthday by cutting a cake and giving him gifts and souvenirs. This was followed by a question- answer session.There was a free for all for having photographs taken with him. He was more than happy to oblige. Then we all explored the chopper while our leader was huddled with the Russian team. They finally left after an hour and a half. It was a memorable visit by the grand old man of Antarctica

Pampering Our Taste buds

The convoy returned with most of our urgent supplies on 17th April. We were short of everything. Dry rations were almost exhausted. We were having the same stuff day after day. It was all bland as most of the spices were also exhausted. It was a matter of survival now. We had just 2 months of rations left. The positive aspect was that everyone’s weight was under control. Many were dieting. The other stuff of daily use was also exhausted. No pens were available. We were making do with pencils. No batteries. Most of the clocks had stopped. Detergents, mops, scrubs were also getting exhausted.

All those problems have now been solved. We explored the various containers today and replenished the station supplies. All of a sudden we are flooded with all the goodies. Tastes are being rediscovered, appetites have returned. There is a buzz of excitement all around. Different varieties of pulses, sauces, cheese, spices, rasgullas, gajar and badam halwas, 10 types of namkeens and biscuits, maggi, soups, chocolates, dry fruits, jams, juices and lots more. The taste of chocolate was heavenly after 5 months of deprivation. We were each given almost 10 kg of dry fruits for the whole year- more than I would have had in my entire life. People were hogging sweets, namkeens and dry fruits by kilograms. I myself devoured half a kg cashew nuts in a few hours time. It was irresistible. But desi ghee is the toast of the station. Butter has gone out of fashion. Most of the expedition members were seen in the kitchen picking their choicest delicacies. Those who were on a diet were on the forefront of this onslaught, grumbling about their weight but having a ball nonetheless.

This is only the beginning. A lot more goodies await us when we open the other containers tomorrow- musical instruments, electronic items, new linen, sports equipment and lots lots more.