Teachers on Ice- Dr Rogers in Antarctica

We got a call today to let us know that the staff of Patriot Hills basecamp managed to get into Antarctica this afternoon. If the weather holds we will be flying in tomorrow morning. We won’t know for sure until tomorrow. Could be my last shower for a month or so soon! Just in case we will be flying, Ruth and I went down to the main plaza in Punta Arenas to kiss the toe of a statue of Magellan. It’s a tradition to kiss the toe before you go to keep you safe in Antarctica. Fingers crossed it will work for us!

A day of mixed emotions today. We sat nervously waiting for a 10am call to tell us whether we would fly or not today.  By 10:05 we had our answer. The staff team hadn’t managed to get in last night so we were put on 24 hour standby. We didn’t let it get us down too much though and headed off to a penguin colony at Otway sound about an hours drive from Punta Arenas. It was fantastic to be able to see some penguins. They were Magellan penguins, not one of the types found in Antarctica but I wasn’t too worried by that. We saw them wandering around and lounging in the sea. One was taking a nap under the board walk and was quite attracted to my camera. It’s the first time I’ve ever been attacked by a penguin. These penguins are quite small, about 18 inches tall. They arrive at Otway sound in September and at the moment they have eggs in their burrows which should hatch in December or January. We didn’t just see penguins we were lucky enough to see rheas (a South American version of an ostrich) and an enormous condor as well. The landscape here looks so desolate- flat plains with the spectacular Andes mountains in the background. It was a good day and helped take my mind off the fact that we should have now been landing in Antarctica for our first night on the ice. It’s going to be hard to deal with if we get delayed again tomorrow though. I just want to get there now!    

We are all packed up now. All our kit to go in the hold of the aeroplane into Antarctica has been collected. 739 kilos of food and gear. You can see a picture here of Ruth stood next to our food supplies. This will be what the six of us will get through in one month on the ice. We won’t see our hold luggage again until we get on the plane. We just have our hand luggage left with us now. We are due to fly tomorrow. The weather there is getting better so we might be lucky but there are no definates. We just need to sit and wait. This morning, we had a twohour slideshow with other expeditions going into Antarctica. We saw loads of pictures of the plane and Patriot Hills basecamp and lots of gory pictures of people with frostbite. It was really reassuring to get a talk by the medical staff at the basecamp and see how good their facilites there are. I feel confident I’ll be in really good hands if things do go wrong. I have learnt lots of ways to prevent frostbite and snowblindness now though, so hopefully I should be ok. We are having a documentary made of our expedition and at the moment the rest of the team are talking about what the title of the documentary should be. If you have any good ideas it would be great if you could send them to us!

Phew. A whole day of sorting out boxes and boxes of food and kit. We’ve had 24 hours to sort everything that was shipped in and everything we brought in. It’s been a bit like The Apprentice-we’ve been given lots of tasks to do. Ruth and I spent the morning shopping for a whole range of things from boot laces to lunch supplies for 30 days on the ice. We have bought every Tortilla in Punta Arenas and cleared out the supermarket of about 200 plastic bags. The tents have all been put up and checked, the stoves checked, the rope gear sorted, insulation covers made for all our water bottles…. the list has been endless but we are just about there now. Tomorrow we have a 2 hour breifing about what to expect on the flight and at the basecamp. Then on Thursday we are due to fly in. The weather reports from Antarctica still aren’t great. The wind has dropped though so we might get in there on time.

After about 31 hours of travelling we finally arrived at the southern tip of South America. Punta Arenas in Chile. The idea is that we spend a couple of days here gathering our kit together. A lot of our kit has been here for a while as it got shipped across  from the UK. We have about 750 kilos of stuff that we will need to divide up between the six of us. Which means I could be hauling almost twice my body weight around on the ice. I’m feeling a bit worried about that! Punta Arenas is very cold. I’ve already had to get out some of my Antarctic kit. The trip was very long but there were some pretty amazing bits too. We flew in over the Andes and it was amazing to see them. Huge snowcapped mountains for miles. It was really spectacular. We stopped in San Tiago for a few hours and then flew down the Andes towards Punta Arenas. We had a great dinner in a restaurant and the top of a local hotel with 360 views over Punta Arenas and the straits of Magellan. A celebratory meal for arriving. We’ve heard that the weather in Antarctica is not great. Nobody has managed to put tents up at our basecamp in Patriot Hills yet because of the wind. It seems like there is a high possibility that we will be delayed going in for a few days. I’m feeling really nervous now that we are finally here. Very excited to be just a few hours flight from Antarctica though!

We are in Madrid at the moment on the way to South America. The last couple of days have been pretty busy! Lots of packing to do. You can see our expedition leaders weighing our bags here before we set out for the airport. I ended up with about 25 kilos of stuff. Not as bad as I was thinking, but added to all the food,tents and other equipment we have to haul around on the ice I think I´m going to be pretty strong when I get back! We arrive in Punta Arenas on Sunday night after 31 hours of travelling. We´ll have a couple of days to sort out all the kit that was sent by boat then we are due to fly into Antarctica on the 8th November.I´m really excited now. I can´t wait to get there. We could be delayed because of bad weather, which will be really annoying!

I’ve spent the last two days down in Portsmouth undergoing some testing. As part of Phil Avery’s science project we are looking at how Antarctica affects our bodies. We did these tests back in May, again over the last 2 days and we’ll do them a final time as soon as we get back. That way we can see if Antarctica has made us change mentally or physically. One of the tests involved sitting in a freezer in my swimsuit for 1 hour and 12 minutes. Brrr… Good practice for Antarctica. My feet are still cold. We also did some fitness tests and it was great to find that my training has paid off and I am fitter now than I was back in May. Unfortunately, I’ve also lost some fat too. My diet didn’t work. I was hoping to put on some extra fat layers to keep me warmer. But I didn’t manage it with all the extra exercising, stressing and running around. Lots of eating to do over the next few days! My packing is done. I will pay a quick visit to school tomorrow to collect the Higham Lane flag for my sledge then it’s off to spend the night with the other expedition members and have a final kit check to make sure we all have exactly what we need. No more. No less. Take a look at how much stuff I have. How am I going to carry it all!

Today I went down to Leighton Buzzard to have an Antarctic day with years 7 and 5 at Linslade Middle School. It was really good fun and the pupils there came up with so many fantastic questions. I hope they will post more of their questions on to this website, as I know I didn’t get a chance to answer all of them. Year 7 worked out what type of science project they would like to do in Antarctica and why. Then we did some activities to see how well they would cope with the conditions there. We had a problem-solving activity where they had to get supplies across a crevasse and we also got the chance to demonstrate a crevasse rescue. I think some of the pupils would make great Antarctic scientists. Year 5 learnt lots of new words and facts about Antarctica that they can use in their diary writing next week. Thank you Miss Strong for organising the day!

Just five days left now before we fly and I’m busy frantically getting together the last few items on my kit list and sorting out the kit I need for my science project. I don’t know how it’s all going to fit in my backpack. I had an interview this morning with BBC Coventry and Warwickshire radio. They were really interested in all the clothes that I will be taking with me. The interviewer particularly liked the down booties that I will be wearing in the tent! This afternoon I had to pay a visit to the doctor to pick up a lot of different medication in case I get sick when I’m out there. Even more things to try and fit into my bag! A big hello to all the girls in 8B and 8C at Master Christi College in Melbourne. They have sent me a long list of fantastic questions which I shall be trying to answer when I get to Antarctica. They also designed some excellent science experiments which I will also try and have a go at whilst I am there. Thank you girls for such great ideas! I’m really looking forward to the results.

On Wednesday we had the expedition launch in London. It was a really exciting day. First we had a tour of the House of Commons, which was fantastic. Then we met with Jim Knight, the Minister for Schools. He was really positive about the expedition and wished us lots of luck. It was the first time I had been to the House of Commons and the first time I had ever met with a minister. It was quite nerveracking. If you click on more you’ll be able to see some pictures at the House of Commons and the evening event that Mr Kelly, the Head Teacher of Higham Lane, came along to. (more…)