Today’s only real news, other than we spent the afternoon chopping 14kg of butter into various 100g, 50g and 25g blocks (the racy world of expedition prep), is that following a visit this morning to meet with Steve at Kenn Borek Air (the guys who will fly us onto the ice) we have a delay. Because of predicted weather conditions and hence levels of light (there is a lot less light at Cape Discovery than here), the pilots have said that they will now drop us off on the 28 Feb. That’s a delay of 2 days - a whole extra 2 days and another crazy weekend in Resolute Bay!
So what - well it now means that we have 58 days to get to the pole. It means that we have to take 2 days less food and fuel; it will also mean that we’ll be 2 days closer to sun up; that we only now have to endure getting up in the extreme cold another 59 times (another nights training and 58 times on the ice). It would be very easy to sit here and come up with as many negatives points as positive. But the simple fact is that we now have a new plan - we now have to get to the pole in less than 58 days - it removes any real possibility of full rest days (which was a tenuous idea anyway), and means when we hit the last 2 degrees we need to turn our thoughts to the expedition becoming a forced march as we will be looking forward to a warm bed and shower.
Tomorrow we plan to spend the day sorting and bagging our food. Once this is complete we can then refine the packing plan for the pulks to ensure that we have equal weight and that the weight will decrease at a similar rate. There is plenty to keep us busy, but Jules and I really now just want to get on with it - if we were offered a flight tonight onto the ice, I think we would both take it! Time to stop the thinking and just get on with it!
The joys of expedition life!
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