We have been travelling since yesterday without camping or sleeping. Everything has been going very well but we have driven slowly, taken a lot of pictures and enjoyed the beuty of the nature. Last night we saw a sunset for the first time since we got to Antarctica! We are now travelling north and the temprature is rising. Last time we camped we slept in 35 degrees below but now it is 8 degrees below. We almost feel we can go out in our t-shirts!
We now have less than 100 kilometers to go before we get to Novo, hopefully we will be there in 2-3 hours. We have already drivien through the most dangorous crack area and everything went well. We tied all the cars together and drove very slowly. We found a way through, built on experience since driving to the Pole and by examining the area carefully. I have to admit we were a little reliefed when we were through.
We needed to pick up a lot of things on the way, things that both we and the competitors had left behind on the way to the Pole. We now have found all those things and will not leave anything behind. We drove to this very beautiful mountain area, called Valley Berg, where we did a lot of photograping and fooled around, sliding down the slopes on our behinds! We thought about camping there but even though the weater is very good at the moment, the forcast for the next two days is not that good so we decided to continue all the way to Novo. The spirit in the group is very good and we are all looking forward to getting to our final destination. Hjalti claims that the cars are getting homesick and that they are getting faster, he is now playing with leting the car jump – with not so good response from all the passangers!
The repair of the transfer box has holden perfectly. This is the first time in history that 4X4 vehicles drive to the South Pole and their performance is great. They have driven close to 6000 kilometers in the most difficult circumstances and they have really shown what they are capable of! If was strange to experience how the functionality of the cars changes when the temprature got down to 35-40 degrees below. Everything got very stiff, for example the shock absorbers froze just when we stopped for refueling. The tires did not work, even though they were deflated, they just became hard as a rock.
The altitude is now almost 1.600 meters over sea level and I am finally feeling good! This is totally different from beeing in 3000 meters altitude, and I have to admit that I was feeling pretty bad.
When we get to Novo we will prepare the cars for winter, but the cars will not be moved until october. Now winter is coming with extreme cold and darkness, almost all operation in the stations here will close down and most of the people goes away for winter. We will therefor find a good spot for the cars, cover the cars and here they will stand until september/october. Then we will propably send some people here to go over the cars and teach the people here how to use them.
Everybody that has been taking part in this expedition has been praising Gísli and Hjalti and they alls say that without them this would never have worked out. We can be very proud of our boys! I belief this is the longest 4X4 tour in the history of Iceland at least. This has been a great adventure and sometimes very difficult. Now we are all getting very exited about getting home, but Hjalti sais that the hardest part is still ahead of us, that is getting rid of the body odor! It is like it will take more than one shower to get that off!
Best regards,
Emil
