The next morning I woke up at about 6 AM. Sasha was ready with a light breakfast. I had some coffee and ham and went back to the Banjara. The Russians left soon after. Since they had to load fuel barrels before we reached the Russian barrier. We readied our vehicles, packed up the Banjara and left for the Russian barrier at about 9 AM. We were not acquainted with the route. Hence we were dependent on the GPS for the route. The route from the Indian shelf to the Russian barrier was fed into our GPSs by the leader for this convoy. The Russian barrier was about 40 km away. The journey was expected to take us 5 hours
We moved initially along our convoy route. But we turned right before point C18. Then we moved largely straight as per the GPS. Soon we were passing through an area which was flatter than any area I have seen on the shelf. There were no undulations here. There was copious amount of snow in this region. The snow was very soft. I had never witnessed such soft snow in Antarctica till now. Most of the snow I have seen was hard due to wind effects. This was so soft that the tracks of the vehicles sank in the snow.
This was the area where the Dakshin Gangotri station once was. It was an amazing feeling to pass through this area. I could vividly imagine the experiences of the wintering people at this station. It was as if I was living their experience. I could imagine a small station in the middle of nowhere on an absolutely flat, featureless piece of ice shelf, laden with snow. This place sees a blizzard every few days. Those blizzards are more ferocious than the ones at Maitri. They lead to astounding snow deposition. I could feel the depression and the loneliness that those members had once experienced in such a desolate place. It was hell. Getting lost in a blizzard in such a place was easy and led to a certain death. Incidentally, while travelling, I was reading a book “Citadel of Ice- Dakshin Gangotri” which gives an account of the first Indian wintering in Antarctica in 1983-85 by the then station commander, Brig SS Sharma. He has given such a vivid account of his experiences that it was as if I was wintering over in that era with him, more so since I was passing through the area of Dakshin Gangotri station. This was desolation at its best, or worst as one may take it. It was a strange feeling to realise that the station now lies buried 15 meters below in the ice, and that it would one day be released into the ocean with an ice berg, when the shelf breaks. To further take me back to that era, it had become cloudy and there was mild snowfall. But there was no wind. There was so much snow that I could not distinguish between the ground and the sky. Both were equally white. While driving, I felt as if I am driving in air. This was a typical white out as described in any book on Antarctica. Even if we were upside down, we would not have been able to make it out.
To further prolong my Dakshin Gangotri experience, one of the vehicles broke down. The snow was now coming down harder. Thankfully, there was no wind. Even the slightest wind would have caused a blizzard under such circumstances. The convoy team coolly went about repairing the vehicle, which took 5 hours. In the meanwhile I did some photography. I experimented with the camera settings to get the best possible photographs in such a featureless landscape. I did manage to capture the white out to my satisfaction.
The vehicle was repaired by 6 PM and then we proceeded to the Russian barrier, which was just half and hour away. We reached there at 6:30 and finally located the Russian vehicle close to the shelf edge in a depression.
No comments:
Post a Comment