Monday 29 October 2007

Waiting, as the plot thickens

Still in Rothera. The plane may or may not be on its way. But something interesting has occurred - we will have a mysterious co-traveller on this flight, whose identity and destination are unknown. Intrepid explorer? Government agent? The Thing? Speculation is abuzz amongst the Halley-bound Rotherites, and I smell the makings of a good novel here, somewhere. Of course, it's probably just a spare mechanic, but we don't have that much to gossip about here, so we assume the most dramatic.

In the meantime, I'm planning out my field trips, making maps, and continuing to play with my toys. I'm also helping to install a beacon called Doris. Actually, Doris is the name of the entire satellite system that helps to identify satellite positions precisely - like GPS, but in reverse. It relies upon a worldwide network of beacons, like the one I'm helping to install.

And here are some completely unrelated pictures, which I filched from one of my co-travellers, Neil Ross.

Here we are, boarding the plane at Punta.




Here's a better picture of the ice cave crevasse. You can pretend that's me, if you like.


The band shown below is called "Ass of BAS", and they set up in the sledge store on Saturday night for a party, complete with a bar with "barmaids" in drag. The entire production was quite comical, and I'm sure some of it will end up on Youtube.


And now...I will sit and wait for the plane. And the passenger!

2 comments:

Anderson said...

WRT the passenger... have you read the Phillip Pullman books yet? Your tale smacks of the plot in the Subtle Knife...

Ryan said...

It's on the list.