Credits: A. Kumar
Alex writes: It has been a week since we saw our last sunset. I took some time out to enjoy and preserve this special time.
From now on things are going to be different. It will be more of a challenge trying to maintain a normal body clock.
I have been lucky to have witnessed spectacular sunsets around the world, from Pokhara lake in the Himalayas to Caribbean sunsets worthy of postcards.
I took a stroll and stood outside for a while to soak up the last rays.
Imagine for a moment, travelling long haul in a passenger airplane to a distant warm island – perhaps Bermuda or Barbados. After many hours in an economy class seat, you step outside and feel the warm breeze but more importantly, you feel warmed to the bone by the sheer strength of the Sun’s rays. I closed my eyes and tried to ‘save’ the memory and feeling as a file on the desktop background of my mind.
It was beautiful as the sun left, dissolving into the horizon. I thought to myself, this is the closest you can come to witnessing the end of time… an apocalypse, right now.
That night, looking through the frozen window of my bedroom, I drew the shutter and pondered Shakespeare who wrote: “Men shut their doors against a setting sun.” Down here is no exception, we have to or we would literally freeze to death.
Credits: A. Kumar
On my last day of work before leaving to Concordia, I met professor David Warrell in Oxford who has travelled extensively and knows the world better than anyone else I know. Across the hospital canteen table, he sat stern and upright, looked me straight in the eye and said simply: “People actually go mad down in Antarctica you know.”
Dwelling on that thought, I tighten my grip on imaginary handle bars, as this roller-coaster ride reaches its peak… and is about to start its winding, treacherous descent.
Only 4 months of darkness. I remember the world record for the longest time spent on a roller-coaster ride: Richard Rodriguez spent almost 17 days on a roller-coaster.
If there really is light at the end of the tunnel, we can’t see it yet.
Discussion: 9 comments
Hi, yours and your fellow Concordians’ experience is going to be amazing and I will look forward to your postings. I hope there will be clear skies so that you can enjoy the night in all its amazing glory, which for me is the best reason to be there, and I can’t imagine what spectacular auroras you will be subjected to! Please post pictures. Auroras are the most amazing thing I have ever experienced. I think I will try to write some science fiction in my idle hours if I were there 🙂 I wish you all to enjoy the experience! With very best wishes.
Hi, Julien,
I’m writing from Porto Alegre, a city in the south of Brasil.
My english is very poor, therefore I may not express my inner feelings so well.
I wish to you and your friends of journey a warm winter (if it is possible) and may my embrace ( I don’t know if it is the correct word) warm your heart a little.
Best wishes
Vânia
I like your pictures. I think pictures will help keep your memories of the sun alive, and thereby motivate you during the dark season ahead. I look forward to shadowy pictures of life on the base.
Beautifully written Alex, can’t wait for you to write something cool about our trip…:-)
Professor Warrell strikes me as a cheerful sort of fellow, the kind you find in the first reel of most horror-movies 😉
Hi,
I just wanted to tell you that people like you and your colleagues are very inspiring to me! I wish the whole team a trouble free winter in Antarctica and I’m looking forward to read more of your posts.
Best regards from Vienna, Austria
Hello, I am wishing you all good luck, I admit I am jealous of the experiance you are going to get, Please take some pictures of the night sky (if you can get outside , and the camera works. ) only four months the time will pass quickly if you keep busy.
Keep yourself active both mind and body. Don’t dwell on being in the dark for so long. You are a survivor and as a scientist enjoy what no other man can achieve what you will. You are in an elite class of individuals in this world. I look forward to reading this blog. I live in the desert where the sun heats up my world to 120 degrees F. But only from May to Oct. By the time Sept. comes around I am looking forward to cooler weather such as a 90 degree day. Remember at all times you are not alone.
Regards,
Karen in Arizona USA
One day at a time. You’re a splendid group with brains, bodies, and guts to go. You’ll sail through the winter in great shape. I only have my imagination, but I’m a vivid dreamer and will no doubt dream of Concordia Station tonight. You wouldn’t recognize the place in my dreams, of course. All the best to you.