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This is now the 4th time, i am on my way to King George Island. Traveling to this island is always an adventure for itself and it seems, i am taking a different route each time. This time my way included a train ride to the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, the plane over the Atlantic to Buenos Aires in Argentina. Since working on the glacier impedes trusting your life to the others connected to you through a rope, we have developed a very close working relationship within the Glaciology group as well as a bond of friendship. So the time in Buenos Aires was meant to work together on the data for scientific publications as well as coordinating our work schedules. For a normal campaign, we would be going together as a group. But this time, i travel because the main sensor of the eddy covariance station needed to be disassembled and sent to Campbell Scientific, US, for repairs. The sensor got sent back directly to Punta Arenas and Chile, where i will pick it up to reinstall and prepare everything for the upcoming summer. 

From Buenos Aires, i took the flight to Rio Gallegos, a place that last January we were stranded for about three weeks. So i didn't really want to linger but took the next bus to Punta Arenas in Chile. The road is somewhat uneventful, flat and empty, except for maybe one or two ranch houses, some wildlife in the bushy grasslands, and maybe a few trees torn by the strong Patagonian wind. My last day in Buenos Aires had been sunny and 26 degrees Celsius, my arrival in Punta
Arenas was with snow fall and heavy wind around 0 degrees. Although later it cleared off and i could enjoy an afternoon at the beach with perfect sun but of course very strong winds. I will have to get used to that again, not the sun (you don't see it often on King George Island) but the strong winds that nearly blow you off your feet.
So now, i am waiting for the flight with the Hercules run by the Chilean Military, to bring me to Frei where there is a landing slip. From there, the further road is unclear. It will either be the Argentinean boats picking me up. Although this is not probable, since the sea near the coast is frozen and it is impossible to navigate these days. The second option is to go either by Helicopter and land at the base of Carlini, or the Twin which has skies attached so it can land on the glacier, where i would then be picked up. And I can't wait to arrive :)

news from the glacier group

After our rather late arrival at Jubany station, we first had to deal
with several problems connected to the last overwintering crew like
missing or broken equipment. But after a two weeks time of
reorganization and a lot of help of the station's crew, we found
ourselves in the middle of a very nice and smooth campaign.
Our glacier group comprises Hilke, Gunter and me from Bonn and Eugenio
and Hernan from Buenos Aires. Our work went really smooth due to our
great group work, the extensive help from the base mechanics and other
crew and last but not least to the exceptionally good weather! Sunshine
on Potter glacier - it is really amazing! So, we found ourselves in the
midst of a very successful campaign although with a reduced program, and
now we are about to finalize our work for the winter time.

Glacier front Potter cove summer 2010-2011

to something completely different - Burundi

since I was giving a workshop for meteorological station networks and analysis last week in Burundi, now a few pictures of a totally different climate. 

Arrival was on Saturday, and after checking into the hotel, the driver and me did a small tour through town and visited the National Museum of Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi. It is a very small town at Tanganyika lake. There are Crocodiles and Chimpanzees, a Leopard and a lot of poisonous snakes.

 

Also guards that play with the crocodiles - after feeding I guess...

Burundi has beautiful beaches and people do have a lot of fun playing at and in the water. It is a nice place to hang out on the weekends, enyoying the water and later also a beer.

 
Also the Kongo is not very far away, just on the other side of the Tanganyika lake.

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Envenenado ...

Our expedition to King George Island and our work on the glacier at Potter cove came to a rather quick end since the Argentine military announced our flight back on Sunday afternoon for the following day at noon. We did a night's packing but also taking farewell from our friends at the Argentine base who are going to stay for the winter. We will meet again as soon as the next summer season starts, and hopefully will be able to play some more darts and have some beer in this excellent and enchanting place.

We left our colleagues at Rio Gallegos in Argentina to find our way back to Punta Arenas, Southern Chile, for the flight back to Germany. And since travelling through one of the most beautiful landscapes could not go without doing some hikes, we stopped in Puerto Natales to go to Torres del Paine Park. The Park is just beautiful, with mountains and rivers without end, and very impressing glaciers. It is definitely worth another visit, maybe then with proper gear to get a bit closer look at the ice :-)

 

 

envenenado ...

 

 

 

Potter Cove Talk

Besides the work we get to  see a lot of wild life. This also means to watch out for Skua attacks from above, that remind of Alfred Hitchcocks "The Birds". During our GPS measurements of the glacier border, we encountered a lot of Gentoo penguins and sea elephants but also crab eaters. Since the glacier is now in a somewhat sloshy state at the borders, we could not take the skidoos, but needed to do a long hike. This was somewhat easier in November, and caused some muscle pain.