Arrived Cape Town

Well I am sitting in Cape Town waiting for the flight to Antarctica, we have had the flight briefings and handed over our bagage but weather in Antarctica means that we will be here for the next 48hrs.

As you can see - lovely weather here at the moment. Cape Town is quite busy and exciting at the  moment as the Volvo round the world yacht race are here - now those people are mad. Cape Town has great food so I am making the most of the fresh food before hitting the more basic fare supplied at Halley. That glass of wine wasn't as big as it looks in the photo - honest.

What to take?

A week to go and I need to start packing my personal things. The flight from Novo to Halley is very weight constrained so I can only take 20kg of my own baggage. All my cold weather gear will already be there so its just my indoor gear and any toys that I want. I am taking a kindle this year - so much lighter than dozens of books. My MP3 player obviously, my computer (so I have all my digital photos of the family and all my music collection). But what else to take? How many T shirts to last three months? What would you take?

Antarctic communications

Antarctic communications have improved since the days of HF radio - so if Matthew wants to keep in touch he doesn't need the radio anymore.

Free poster

The Open University has produced an excellent poster to go along with the equally excellent BBC Frozen Planet series. If they have any left they will send you one for free, if not you can down load it and print it yourself. Both options available if you click here.