May 29

This was our last day on the icecap. Today we would fly back to Constable Point, if all went to plan. Scott rang back to England and everything was OK so far. The Twin Otter had made it to Constable Point the night before. The weather in the morning was clear but to the southeast cloud was coming in. Cloud is the main problem for the Twin Otter. There is no assisted landing here. The pilot has to be able to see where he wants to land and know there are no mountains in the way.

1 o'clock was when the plane was scheduled to land. We all started to pack but kept an eye on the weather. We had plenty of time to get things organized. Pulks were dug out from the snow and the group gear packed inside. The pulks were then packed together. Stoves were cleaned as much as possible. The remaining food was sorted into different categories. The left over food is flown back to Iceland and then given to a charity. Being frozen for ten days was not going to affect it. The cloud slowly crept towards us from the southeast and some of us started to wonder if we would be leaving here today. Scott rang Benny at Constable Point. The plane had left at 10am. It was not scheduled to arrive on the glacier till 2pm. Stary said that since the plane was on its way we would be leaving. The cost of the fuel to come all the way north is too much to not get us. The pilot must be confident the weather would allow a landing. Not everyone believed him, but they continued to pack.

Around 2 o'clock the cloud had come in from the southeast and had covered us. It was now grey and cold. We were glad we had not taken the tents down yet, but everything else was packed. The last bit of blue sky to the northwest slowly disappeared. We then heard the plane fly over us. Scott got out the air band radio and talked to the pilots. He told them what visibility was like. Good below the cloud, the cloud base was about 100m and complete. The front head was moving northwest and was not too far away, maybe an hour. We then packed the remaining things, mainly the tents. We did not hear anything more for 15 minutes and then I heard a faint sound of the approaching plane. It was to the northwest. I looked around and saw it gliding towards us about 50 metres off the ground and 10km away. It skimmed along just above the ground till about 3km away and then landed. It taxied the remaining distance and parked beside our pile of gear. This time both engines were stopped. The pilot explained it had taken quite a while to find a hole through the cloud to get down to us. He had ducked below the cloud out over the ice cap and then flown under the cloud to us.

We quickly loaded all the gear. The pilot and co-pilot wanted to pack everything just to make sure it was stable and secure. It probably took 20 minutes. We seemed to have more gear than on the way here - the old packing problem. With plenty of time in a nice warm environment it's always easy to pack into a smaller space. Well it's the weight that really matters, not the volume. Everything was dry so we should have been lighter than on the way out because of all the food we had eaten.

The pilot was not sure what route we would take back to Constable Point. When landing at Daneborg on the way out they had used the short runway because of a cross wind on the main runway. They preferred to use a different base to refuel on the way back if possible. That would depend on how easy the take off was. Stary has said that sometimes its hard to get loaded plane off the glacier. A lot depends on the snow and how deep the skis dig in. On one trip it took 6 attempts to get off the ground. If the last attempt had failed they would of had to leave some of the team behind and come back from them later.

We all climbed aboard and strapped in. The plane taxied down the glacier to the north into the wind. The pilot then turned the plane around and went back to the south over the tracks it had just made. The pilot was constructing a compacted snow runway. Back at the campsite he turned around and then sprinted down the runway. The ride was bumpy and noisy, the engines straining to propel us over the snow. We seems to slide along the snow on skis for a long time before creeping into the sky. This was a very different take off from the one at Constable Point. That was a short sprint and a jump into the air. This was more of a long distance run in treacle before slowly getting the skis off the ground, when we picked up more speed and climbed into the air.

Taking off they did not care about the cloud. They knew where they were and where the mountains were not and so just climbed up through the cloud. The cloud was quite thick and we only just got above it at 3000m. At least thats what the altitude my watch said. They had not used too much fuel on the take off so we could head for the alternative refueling site at Mesters Vik. It was further south than Daneborg, about 2 hours flying time, but it's runway was better angled for the wind.

The cloud spoiled most of the views. In places the mountains peeked above the clouds. Seeing this is still a bit special, but visiting the Alps so often it's become less so. The first time I saw this in the Lake District it was very mystical to climb up through the clouds and get above them to have a sea of clouds with the odd mountain peak poking out.

Mountains poking up through the cloud

From what holes there were in the clouds it seemed we took a more coastal route than on the way out. At one point I could see down to the frozen sea to where icebergs were stranded in the ice. What was even stranger was a crack line many kilometres long across the ice.

Looking down through the cloud at the frozen sea, trapped icebergs and a long crack.

Mesters Vik turned out to be smaller than Daneborg, although the runway was much longer. We surprised the ground staff be landing right at the beginning of it. They knew we were a Twin Otter and did not need much runway to land on, so had only cleared part of the runway. For some reason we landed on the bit that had not been cleared. The skis came in useful again. It seemed a very long runway as we taxied down it. I'm sure that even the biggest of jets could have landed there in an emergency. Maybe it is an emergency runway for planes going over the top to Canada and America. Mesters Vik still had only its winter staff of two, although if we wanted to stay he said he could easily put up 50 for the night! I think they were glad of the company for a change. They also had four sled dog pups. They were ever so friendly and defiantly liked visitors. We all got jumped on and licked. They also wanted to help out refueling the plane and wanted to get on board to smell everything. I guess the pups have seen few humans living in such a remote place. Given this, they where remarkably friendly and not shy at all.

Mesters Vik. The pups making friends with Alan and Gordon

Fuel cans for our plane and the Mesters Vik base behind.

The intense colours again and a perfect reflection.

A nice touch was when the ground staff give us in flight services. We got back onto the plane and found a box with a flask of fresh coffee, cans of Coke and Tango etc, a can of peanuts, a bag of party size Mars bars and a packet of biscuits! The coffee and cans went down well but the Mars bars were not as well received. We had overloaded on these over the last 10 days. It was a really friendly thing to do though. I hope the flask made it back to them somehow.

Constable Point had changed a bit since we had left. Much of the snow had gone. Where we had skied two weeks earlier was now a mixture of gravel, boulders and rough heather. The area outside of the accommodation block had been frozen gravel with a light covering of snow. It was now a big mud bath with pallets across it to the door. The temperature had obviously increased a lot in the last ten days and everything was melting.

A proper dinner was welcomed by most, although Stary and Glen opted to cook more of the rations for some strange reason. I think it was well worth spending the extra money to eat food that was not dehydrated, burnt and required an knife to eat. Thick creamy soup, boiled potatoes, meat in slices, vegetables which looked like vegetables even if they did come out of a tin. Fresh warm bread with butter. I think we all went back for more and Paul had three helpings. Then more of the fresh coffee which this place never seems to run out of. Proper food!

Then there was a rush on the showers. 10 days of physical activity with two sets of thermals! Showers were needed. I'm surprised they let us into the dining room without having a shower and change of clothes first! The shower seemed very cold at first. I worried that we had used all the hot water. Then i found the hot and cold tap were revered. Blue was hot, red has cold. Probably a plumbing error not deliberate. A hot shower, great. Clean body and hair. Petter was next into the shower but did not figure out the taps and had a short cold shower.