Hotel California

         

              As the Eagles said, “you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.” This definitely became our theme song as we stayed a full week in McMurdo, expecting to leave each morning, only to find out that our flight was yet again cancelled due to bad weather on the way to Casey.

View from the summit of Observation hill, 4am.

            Mind you, all this time the weather we experienced was absolutely stunning. A full week at the American station was not only enough time for us to really enjoy all the aspects of life there, make friends, and for my American accent to come back full force.

Casey as seen from Ob. hill (still 4am!)

Scott Base and Ice formations

         Thankfully we moved out of the gym (which I later found out had previously been used as a morgue in a mass casualty incident years ago), and into much nicer accommodation called “Hotel California”. We should have seen the implications of this from the start! Finally sleeping well, and getting access to our suitcases for just a day made things much more comfortable. We got to explore a bit more, venture over to the Kiwi Station (Scott Base) for some cross-country skiing and enjoy a few more beverages and games of shuffle-board.

The kiwis were pretty awesome to let us hang out there

NO, it's no downhill slope in the Alps or PNW,
 but hey, it's actually the ocean. And  snow, and I think that's half
of what I've been craving.

       Leaving McMurdo the first time, we'd already made enough friends in the American crowd that they teased us quite heartily when our bus returned from a failed mission to the air-field. The second time we piled onto Ivan the Terra-Bus hoping he'd take us to the plane, we finally got to leave. This is when things really started getting exciting. I think until the plane actually started up, we were all too deflated from false-starts to really think we would ever actually be on our way to Casey.

Hercules!

 But there we were, in a 1950's American military plane, a Hercules, strapped to fold-down canvas seats, with cargo piled practically to the roof in the same compartment as us, and very little leg-room.

the backs of our seats and the view of my closest porthole

 
      The loudness and intensity of the experience quickly raised excitement levels, and everyone seemed pretty excited to finally be on our way to destination. Of course that was promptly followed by many people falling asleep for most of the 4.5hr flight.

Second cock-pit visit of the trip! 

Seating arrangements, and cargo visible in the back.
Which, by the way, got dropped out of the back of the
moving plane on the landing strip. 

            Views at take-off, as seen through tiny portholes behind us, were absolutely stunning of the trans-Antarctic range, glacier tongues dripping down mountain sides, blue shining skies and blue glacier lakes. Take-off it's self, by the way, despite being deafening was the smoothest plane take-off I have ever experienced. I would not have noticed we'd left the snow if I had not been watching the ice go by.

Props to those glacial lakes for being so blue!

More spectacular glacial views

Once settled at cruising altitude and passing the mountains, we crossed a LOT of snow and ice. Whiteness extending as far as the eye could see, until arriving at the ice's edge where we were to land at Wilkins ski-way and head into Casey by bus. 

         Finally landing was thrilling, and knowing we would very soon see the place we were about to call home for the next 4months caused many to jump for joy (ok, maybe it was just me.... :) ).