Tuesday 27 January 2009

Still stranded in Cape Town

Hallo,

At this moment I'm sitting in an internet cafe, the internet connection should be better.
Around 9pm we should receive the information on if we can fly tonight.
I hope we can... It's a bit strange feeling here, because we have more or less a touristy programme instead of our Antarctic work.

We had to put a maximum of material in the big flightbag that was already put in the Ilyuschin76TD. So, even if we would like to work a bit, it is difficult.

We are now enjoying the pretty setting of CapeTown, the hospitality of the people here and the many attractions the Western Cape province offers. We are a group of 7 (myself included) scientists (Beldiva, Hydrant, Belatmos), 2 experts for the electronics, 1 solar panel specialist, 4 artists, 1 person from International Polar Foundation, and a expert for water treatment.

We had already some highlights seeing penguins, Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope. It was very exciting having only ocean in front of you and behind that is Antarctica...


Today we would like to go up to the Table Mountain.
This sounds like a very touristy, not scientific trip. But that's how it is - if there's bad weather in Antarctica: everything is messed up.

I'll see if I can send something this evening as soon as we know more exactly
what is going on.

kind regards,
Alexander

1 comment:

  1. Alexander,

    Congratulations for your blog, it will be exciting to follow you and the experiences you are in charge of. I hope you will not be blocked for a too long time in Cape Town. Anyhow, I guess the weather is nice in Cape Town, so I would advice you to take advantage of this, even if it looks tourism.
    We putted today a link to your blog at our webpage, probably you will get soon a lot of comments, I hope you will still find enough time to do the experiences for which you are responsible  (this should be a smiley).

    I am looking out to read your reports the following days; best regards,

    H. Malcorps
    DG KMI-IRM

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