Arctic Trucks

 

We drove the cars down to the area where they keep the oil barrels and unloaded the barrels. Then we were invited to lunch at the Russian science station. The canteen was very old and very typical Russian and we had a fish soup. After lunch we drove one of the Russian patients to Maitri, the Indian station. Maitri is very close by the Russian station, but it takes a while to drive there as you have to first go back up half the way to the airport and then down again. 
The people at Maitri met us with a great hospitality and showed us around that station. For example they showed us their new toilets which they are very proud of, but those toilets are specially equipped to break down waste which is a real problem around here.  They also showed us their chapel which is the only multi-religion chapel in Antarctica. There you can practice Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam or Christianity. The ceiling was very low so Hjalti and I had to be on our knees but the Indians were able to stand upright. One of them played some psalm on some kind of a harmonica. It was a great pleasure to visit the Indians.
When we came out there was a lot of people around our cars. They asked a lot of questions regarding how they work, how long it takes to drive from the airport, how much they could carry and so on. We will visit them again with more information about Arctic Trucks.

Gísli Jónsson

 

We woke up early because we were going on a trip to look at the penguins. In the beginning we could drive on 60 but then it got more rugged and we needed to slow down. This area is dissected by water due to ice meltdown. We have been told that this happens once a year but we have not seen this yet.
We drove down to the ice edge where the Russians unload their ships. We saw a lot of empty barrels, broken and rusty machines on the way. This place really needs some cleaning up!
We had taken the trailers with us in case we could bring a few oil barrels back. We put 30 barrels on the cars, 10 on each car. We manage to prove that those cars can pull 10 barrels each from the shore an up here in one day. Today the Russian monster they use can bring around 40 barrels in a trip that takes 3 days. It was nice to see how easily the cars were able to do this.
On the way back we left the trailers and decided to drive to the Indian barrier in the hope of seeing some penguins. We found some tracks and drove about 20 kilometers to the area where the Indians unload their ships and his area was very clean. We met two friendly penguins and they came towards us when they saw the movement. One of them did not stop long and ran away screaming. The other one stayed around longer and was very friendly.
We turned back and each car was loaded with two men with equipment, 500 kilos on the car and towing 2250 kilos. In the middle of the way a 44 inch tire suddenly passed my car, going fast.  The lug bolts on the trailer had broken and the tire got loose. We changed the bolts and it only took like 15 minutes until we could drive on. This is the second time a log bolt loosens, even though we have been tightening it on regular bases. We are getting a little worried but we still hope this will soon "grow in".  
We came back to Novo around midnight and we decided that since it now was Saturday we should open up a bottle of whiskey. We invited the Russians and they told us some hilarious stories about the cold war and their interactions with the Americans just after the cold war ended. It was very good for the moral to laugh together.

 

Gísli Jónsson

 

Last night we had a bad snowdrift and the snow banks around the camp were up to two meters high when we woke up. The camp seems to be the only place where there are snow banks, the snow does not stop anywhere else, just blows away. There are big sectors of blue ice around the camp and snow blows away from that and those sectors get bigger. The wind always comes from the east around here.  The weather was better this morning and decided to try the new tent we have got. The tent looks good, but two of the Russians came by and they saw that the tent had no floor. They came back with some foam mattresses we can put on the floor. They are also planning to get us some Styrofoam to insulate the floor. It is obvious that they are helping any way they can in order to make this expedition happen.
The weather is getting better and better. The sun is high up in the sky, the wind is getting less and it is getting warmer. Now we are placing the stickers on the cars, putting nails in the tires and other necessary preparation. Earlier today a plane landed here with few men that were injured when a Russian station few hundred kilometers from here caught fire. The men had to throw them self out of the window to get away from the fire and doing that they broke their upper legs, pelvis and some more bones. This happened one and half month ago and they have been staying at the station ever since. Now as one of them got infection it was decided to send a plane to get them. Those Russians were not complaining at all, even though they had been staying at the station in the middle of nowhere with broken bones for more than a month! Those guys are real heroes! They were moved to Novo where a doctor could attend to them and they are waiting for a flight out of here on December 19th. We drove them 15 kilometers from the airport to Oasis where the doctor is located and they were very pleased to get such a smooth ride, instead of travelling in the tank. We are busy doing people favors around here, but I know we will get this back many times!
Tomorrow we are planning to drive to the caostline about 100 kilometers to look at the penguins so today we continue preparing the cars for the main trip. We will be taking two of the new cars to try them out.

 

Gísli Jónsson

 

Hjalti and Gísli are now in Novo and they just sent us some new beutiful pictures that you can find in the Photo Gallery.

Hjalti and Gísli have recovered from the mountain sickness and are back in full force. All the cars have arrived in Nova.

 

We woke at 8 am. The temperature is minus 6 and the wind is 20 meters pr. second. The two remaining cars arrived yesterday so we have enough work to do installing the equipment. There is snowdrift and the cars are filling up with snow as we try to install antennas and electricity. We finished all the work inside the cars but will leave the rest until tomorrow when the weather hopefully will be better since it is almost impossible to work outdoor today.
Around 5 pm we all took a greatly appreciated sauna, after some hard working last few days. Again Vladimir gave us some pancakes and vodka. This shows well the atmosphere around here, everybody is so positive and willing to help us. The people here are unique!
This was the first day where we could take it easy. We met Olek who is a station manager here, but he has been located in Antarctica for the last 20 years. He is 45 years old which means he has spent his entire working life here! He knows this area extremely well and showed us some ideas for the future here in Novo.
Andrei has suggested that we drive around 100 kilometers down to the coast to look at some penguin areas. We will try to drive this way within the next few days. This is in the same area as they land the oil barrels and they keep a large stock there, close to 2000 barrels. The idea is to use that trip to bring back as many barrels as possible. The vehicles they use to transfer those barrels are almost  pre-historical and in a very bad shape. In their last trip they managed to bring 40 barrels back and the trip took three days. 
Olek also told us about this convoy he participated in, in order to safe some helicopter pilots that had gotten into trouble by a big cliff which is a very popular place for tourists to climb in. This cliff goes 1000 meters up from the ice and is in fact very dangerous to climb. They are very interested in making a trail they can drive up there to be able to give service to the visitors. Recently 3 or 4 groups have gone there by a plane. The planes have been getting in trouble there and those trips are very risky. The cars could prove very useful in those trips. As a matter of fact, we belief our cars could be used for almost every task around here, instead of those old machines they have got here.  In order to make this place more tourists friendly they also need to clean it up, remove the oil barrels that have been left all over. But there is a lot of work to be done making tracks and GPS tracks around this area.

 

Gísli Jónsson

 

We arrived in Novo at 9 am this morning, after driving for 22 hours without a stop. We heard that the big freight plane was coming in to pick up a TV crew that had had some accidents and were cancelling their expedition. Since they were sending the big plane from Cape Town they decided to send the two remaining cars with it. We were a little worried because none of the filming equipment had been installed yet and we still do not know how that will end. We are happy to get the cars so quickly because this means that we have a lot of time to put in radios, GPS and other things that needs to be installed.
The four of us were all very tired and quickly fell asleep in our container. We have an 8x4 meter container and we are pretty comfortable, it is warm and nice. Everybody fell asleep and we barely woke up when the Russian freighter took a low pass over the area with a lot of noise.

 

Gísli Jónsson