7.12.2017 Stranded in Capetown…
View from Table Mountain to Capetown
Whether “progress” is an advantage or not, is hard to say… After having landed safe and sound in Capetown on Tuesday morning we were supposed to fly to the Russian Antarctic base Novolazarevskaya (shortly: Novo) tomorrow. In spite of fantastic weather at Novo our flight was postponed to next week, though, since a so-called “feeder flight” that should bring a group of Indian scientist with a small plane to the main runway at Novo was impossible due to the weather conditions at their location. Since they will fly back to Capetown with “our” big plane, we have to wait until they arrive at Novo. Then we might get stuck there, until our feeder flight to Neumayer has the right aviation weather. We’ll see. We got the bags with our polar cloths, which we need to change to in the plane before landing, and we also had to check in our main luggage already at the flight briefing yesterday. So we have to survive in Capetown now with hand luggage (8kg incl. the notebook!) for an uncertain time period. With 34°C (93F) outside, it means washing a few things by hand almost every day. Not good, since they are experiencing a severe drought here in Capetown and we try to save water.
The good news: we will most likely not fly with the Russian cargo plane, but with a fancy Boeing 757, which should allow as to look out of the windows! Maybe it is worth the waiting…
In the olden days, we went by ship to Antarctica, which took us about 10 days. I am not sure we will make it to Neumayer in 10 days flying with the planes… However, RV Polarstern, the German research ice breaker, is due at Neumayer not before 22 January, so hopefully we will still be earlier than that.
The South African Antarctic research vessel RV Agulhas II in the harbour of Capetown. She is due to leave for Antarctica any time.
Meanwhile, I play tourist and try to enjoy Capetown. It is full summer tourist season now, but the beauty of the city is mostly caused by its surroundings: the mountains and the sea. Thus I took a little trip on a sailing boat last night and finally had a familiar feeling, seeing Capetown as I was “used” to when I arrived with Polarstern in 1986, 1991, and 1992. Beautiful!
Capetown with Table Mountain, Lion’s Head and Devil’s Peak