A knock at the door confirmed it was time to hand over my personal check in luggage which is weighed along with my camera and drone bag on the pavement. This is the height of service of Kerbside check in!

The day was “at leisure” and I decided after chatting to a returning climber at breakfast, I would learn the basics about the satellite comms links available and set myself up with a Garmin In Reach. This is a personal safety device which can be used for messaging and GPS navigation.

https://explore.garmin.com/en-US/inreach/

After playing around for a couple of hours and with some “confirmation” help from Stefan in Germany, I have one set up, connected with my phone and can send and receive short text messages. I have even linked this to my twitter feed so you might get the occasional message from Antartica too. Wow – IOT is global.

Garmin software is great to use and I’ve always been a fan of their devices. For anyone traveling remote or for those who want to ensure they have basic communication “Anywhere” it is a great little gadget. I can even see the benefit of this when I’m cycling in the South Wales hills where there is often no phone signal.

The evening briefing held at ALE offices was off to a great start when I was handed a local speciality – Pisco Sour with some very special Ice.

I met some of the fellow passengers I will be travelling with. A team from South Korea TV series filming the next episode of ” Law of the Jungle”. Well know across Asia the team travel the world and have to “Survive”

   The cast will have a series of challenges when we arrive, which one of the directors was keeping very quite. That should be amusing to watch… I wonder if it’s similar in style to those crazy Japanese reality shows? They have started the cameras rolling already……

An informative briefing by Olivia really got the excitement levels up and there is a round of applause when the wether briefing is confirmed. It’s looking good for a clear window at our planned departure time. Being a relatively small group we are agile and can be called to be ready for pick up with 30 minutes notice in the morning. I’ll certainly be ready early for this flight and I have my best boarding pass ever in my hand.