Sun 10 Dec '06 – Patriot Hills

The Big Bird is expected here about 16.00 hrs & we all pack & prepare for leaving Antarctica. We all watch the skies at 16.00 hrs & sure enough here she come carrying with her another grouping of hopeful adventurers eager to go about achieving their ambitions. Included in this group are the first people to ever summit Vinson & their families who are here for the 40th anniversary celebration of their achievement back in Dec ’66. Should they see the bedraggled state of us, with scruffy beards, unwashed (apart from wet-wipes) for nearly 3 weeks, split lips & generally looking like we lived on the streets, they would surely turn & return to the Illyushin leaving us stranded here for at least another week. So we hide & when they’ve passed our mess tent we sneak out & run to Big Bird & the start of the arduous journey home via Punta Arenas, Porta Monte, Santiago, Madrid, London & finally Dublin.

We finally take off at 18.00 hrs & arrive in Punta at 22.30, get to our hotel at 00.00 midnight just in time to have a shower or two & then re-pack, get a bite to eat, have 2 hrs sleep before we’re up at 5.00 am to get to the airport for our flights out of Punta. I’m not complaining because with 30 extra people looking for flights out on what is a bank holiday w’end here, we’re lucky to get them. Guy & Paul from New Zealand have been told there are no flights available out of Punta ‘til next Sunday !! So they’re ‘camping’ in the terminal at the ticket desk in the hope of getting standbys some day.

Between the time I boarded the Illuyshin at Patriot & my arrival in Dublin at midnight on Tues night I spent 25 hrs out of 52 on aircraft flying & the rest rushing around airports arguing with personnel about wrong tickets, wrong boarding passes, baggage allowances, connecting flights & what ever other obstacles they tried to throw at me to ensure I didn’t get home. But to be honest it didn’t faze me one bit because when you’ve been through what we went through, you just say ‘what the hell, it doesn’t matter & I’ll get home, sometime, somehow’

Spare a thought for Richard & Ian who I travelled with as far as Madrid before we split up. Whilst Richard has undoubtedly had a difficult time & will continue to do so for some months yet, he has bravely accepted the situation & just gone on with things.
Ian as our guide had to endure 10 days of nursing Richard & attending to his every need for without the use of his hands there were a lot of things, including personal bodily functions that he couldn’t attend to fully himself, so Ian had to do the ‘paperwork’!
I’m not going to comment too much on Richard’s hands at this stage because I don’t know for sure yet what the final outcome will be. As a remarkably strong & brave individual he will endure & accept what ever fate is in store for him & may God continue to bless him for the rest of his life.