Oasis Guest House
We boarded our IL76 at Cape Town by expedition. There was a group of VIPs on the flight, who paid a great deal each for one day in Antarctica. (I’m smelling their delicious lunch right now, being prepared by an Italian chef, also brought in for the day.)
The plane is mostly a cargo plane, with 78 passengers on this flight, which is about the maximum it can hold. It has port-a-potty type bathrooms (visible in the dark corner on the left in the image below).
There were no window seats, but the plane was much brighter once we flew south into continuous daylight from the two windows available. Here, people are putting on their Antarctic clothing in preparation for landing.
We walked down the stairs onto the bright ice. We’re in Antarctica!
The VIPs got whisked away, whereas we hung out on the ice for a while as they started to unload the plane.
And I admired the Basslers.
Then Vladimir and I took all our carry on bags to the airbase dinning room while Valery and Chris got our checked baggage.
Once Chris and Valery tracked down Valery’s missing bag, they picked us up and we drove in an Arctic Trucks outfitted Toyota Hilux to the Oasis Guest Lodge.
(This truck is from the Indian base, and not the one we took.) This will be our home for the next few days.
(Written Nov. 9 but posted in early 2012 with an "adjusted" date.)
The plane is mostly a cargo plane, with 78 passengers on this flight, which is about the maximum it can hold. It has port-a-potty type bathrooms (visible in the dark corner on the left in the image below).
There were no window seats, but the plane was much brighter once we flew south into continuous daylight from the two windows available. Here, people are putting on their Antarctic clothing in preparation for landing.
We walked down the stairs onto the bright ice. We’re in Antarctica!
The VIPs got whisked away, whereas we hung out on the ice for a while as they started to unload the plane.
And I admired the Basslers.
Then Vladimir and I took all our carry on bags to the airbase dinning room while Valery and Chris got our checked baggage.
Once Chris and Valery tracked down Valery’s missing bag, they picked us up and we drove in an Arctic Trucks outfitted Toyota Hilux to the Oasis Guest Lodge.
(This truck is from the Indian base, and not the one we took.) This will be our home for the next few days.
(Written Nov. 9 but posted in early 2012 with an "adjusted" date.)
