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.