Weds 6 Dec '06 – VBC 2200 mts

Had a great sleep til 12.00 noon & boy do we need more of these in the days ahead. We’re quite happy to have a day here to get sorted out & prepare for the Twin Otter flight back to Patriot Hill, but naturally most of the other teams who have been here waiting for 3 days already just want to get out. But we’ll have to wait ‘til the cloud cover lifts & the winds are favourable enough for the pilot to make what is a tricky landing. So we wait, again. The day passes quickly & we have renewed energy from the food’n’fluids being taken on board. We had 2 dinners today to catch up & by late night as we await word on flights we have enough energy to have a mid-night game of American football in the snow in wonderfully bright conditions. It’s all a bit surreal after what we’ve went through just days ago, but there you go! We’re informed that there will be no flights ‘til morning but that it looks very good for getting 2 runs by each Otter to get us all out & back to Patriot.
Richard has had good medical care here & is in good spirits but really needs to be in a hospital in the UK asap. But it will be a full 13 or 14 days from his accident ‘til he gets to the Serious Cold Injuries Unit in Coventry & that is the reality of being here in Antarctica.

This looks like it could be my last night here on Vinson & since it’s a beautiful calm night, I’m reluctant to go to my bag & so take some time to just gaze out marvelling at this incredible landscape stretching out before me into the great unknown.
It has indeed been a privilege to be here & to have experienced what I have & to come out of a truly deadly situation. I feel very humble here, surroundings in which Mother Nature rules with an iron fist along with a little compassion at times. So to bed finally at 03.00am.