For a journey to Antarctica, one may not really have a clear idea of what to expect — after all, you don’t go there every day.
Our adventure essentially began already on the very ordinary route from Innsbruck to Munich Airport. Would we even make the flight to Cape Town in time? Traffic jams and new passengers that still had to be picked up by the airport shuttle kept us quite literally on tenterhooks. Then there was what felt like ten times too much excess baggage, a foreign carnet for customs clearance, and a whole range of questionable items in our hand luggage, such as batteries. And all of that was supposed to be dealt with in 40 minutes, with us buckled into our seats on the plane.
With a great deal of luck, cunning and trickery, however, the doors closed directly behind us and our immodest amount of luggage, and the night flight carried us to Cape Town.
The southern tip of Africa is the departure point for the onward journey to Antarctica. Before that, however, a safety briefing has to be completed with the logistics company “Ultima”, and all luggage destined for Antarctica is already loaded onto the cargo aircraft, an Ilyushin 76TD. What remains is only a swimsuit and a toothbrush for Cape Town, and a bit of patience while waiting for good weather for the flight south.
Contrary to all previous experience, the first departure date actually held, and we find ourselves seated among luggage, containers, other scientists and logistics personnel, until about an hour before arrival in Antarctica we quite literally have to “wrap up warm”. The aircraft itself is cooled down, and we were even able to follow the landing on the ice via an onboard camera. An exciting experience when ice suddenly comes into view — the landing, however, is gentler than expected. One must never overlook the days of effort put in by many people here to keep the runway clear.
We step out into a completely different world — no mountain obstructs the view, a vastness that is soothing to the eye. We have finally landed at the airbase of Novolazarevskaya Station. The airbase is operated by Ultima Logistics and sees itself more as a “hub” for further ventures, other nearby stations, or field expeditions like ours.
