IlyushinOn Saturday we were once again on call for the weather report in Antarctica, and finally they told us to get to the airport quick – we were going to fly in to Antarctica! We boarded the Ilyushin cargo plane, where we were strapped into a giant hull on hard seats and four and a half hours later we were landing on the ice at the Patriot Hills Base Camp. Our first steps on Antarctic snow were truly amazing! I had no idea it would be so beautiful. We were greeted with a hot meal and friendly smiles from the base camp staff who had arrived the day before. We had no idea what time it was as during the summer here it never gets dark. DiggingWe set up our tents and soon the winds picked up. The next day Phil took some measurements and found it to be -20 degrees celsius, with winds up to 52 mph. It was so windy that another team had their tent blown away. Breakfast on Antarctica consists of cereal in hot water, a very frozen chocolate bar and a mug of hot chocolate. We were soon down to work, reinforcing the tents by packing snow onto the flaps to hold it firmly in place, and building up a wall to act as a windbreak. It’s very cold just sitting around, so we were happy to keep active. So far we’ve been getting used to the extreme conditions, with simple tasks like getting dressed taking half an hour, and going to the toilet proving to be very difficult and tedious.