The plane is Hercules C-130, very impressive. You come to this tiny bus and see this monstrous plane and enter the back. Then you sit side by side in these longitudinal seats. And then it is a departure on a seven-hour journey without toilets, with a tiny snack, a lot of sound around you-you just sit until you see, a little Antarctica.
You see these wonderful ice shelves from the tiny windows you have there. The first thing you see when you leave is just ice. You are really novel in this environment, and sometimes it seems a bit like being on another planet.
There is an Italian station and we were to stay for one day. But we learned very quickly that in French, we say, In Antarctica without forecastingWhich means “no forecast in Antarctica” because the weather is very unpredictable. Instead of staying one night, we stayed for almost a week.
This station is only logistic; This is not a purpose of people’s host, and everyone who remains there is blocking others. This is a real logistic challenge for people working there, so they want us to leave as soon as possible. But the weather is so unpredictable that you can’t just take a plane and go inside. You have to wait until the weather is almost stable, and the pilot says: “I’m ready to fly” because he has the last word.
I still had a problem with the data earlier and tried to connect to the internet. There was like the internet of the 90s – you know, A sound signal of a sound signal. I tried to log in, and finally, after two or three hours, on one computer, I arrived at the stage in which he said: “Ok, I’m going to log in to your account so that you can download your things. Give me your phone number. I will send you SMS to log in.” It was a double verification and did not work, because of course there is no telephone service. So I could not access my data because of this double verification.
We finally took the plane. This one is smaller, the Basler BT-67 aircraft, which comes from Canada to flight in Antarctica, and then returns to Canada at the end of the season. This plane ride lasted four hours. It is a plane without pressure. Make sure you put all your clothes to be ready to go out in Concordia, because it is about 30 Celsius. We were very afraid.
The first thing after landing in Concordia was a feeling of dizziness, dizziness. I didn’t know when I arrived there was that you were at 3200 meters above sea level, so you feel some height. After four hours in this tiny aircraft, where you just see the flatness of white, and nothing more, you go down to Concordia.
You see the station from afar. This station seems so tiny, because there is literally nothing in it – there is no mountains, nothing. And you have it little Work in the stomachAs we speak French, like butterflies, because, you know: “Wow, it will be my home for a year.” We came to the Concordia station, and the crew, which had just spent a year and now left the station, was waiting for us and welcomed us very warmly. They led us to the station because sometimes we were afraid of illness at a high height. They want to make sure that nobody wears anything hefty, that we do not perform physical activity. They told us: “Just keep calm for the next few days.”
The station is made of two towers, with 18 faces for each tower. It is basically white, with a little orange and that’s all. You enter through the tunnel between two towers. You take off your shoes and leave all your things there. It is quite tiny. Then you can go left, or “a calm tower”. You have dorms, laboratories and hospital inside. He has three floors. The middle floor is dorms, and the upper floor is laboratories. This is called a “calm tower” to remain serene. Then we go to the second tower, on the right from the entrance. Has technical things. On the second floor there is a video room for movies and a sports room. At the top you have a living room, food zone and kitchen.
Within five minutes you had a trip around your novel home. This is very impressive because you think: “Someone had to build it in the middle of nowhere. Someone had to take the first steps.” And it’s just amazing. So many people go to Antarctica without anything. We come here and we have the luxury of having this building to protect us from this environment.
This is from this world to be there. We saw many photos of Antarctica and probably read many books, but you have never been to the center of Antarctica, which is completely different. There is no life – without birds, trees – literally nothing, nothing but ice and wind.