The flight on the Russian made transport plane was a new experience but better than I was expecting, as we had pretty comfortable seats. Not the bench seats original fitted for troops which I had prepared myself for. We even had in flight catering and a camera mounted in the nose so we could watch the take off and our first glimpse of Antartica.

The flight took about 4.5 hours and was cooler and noisier than normal passenger flights, but we were dressed for Antartica and were going to be there very soon!!!

Union Glacier runway is on Blue Ice which is why wheeled aircraft such as the Ilyushin can land. This area was surveyed by a team in 2007 which included Stuart Proctor from Topcon to prepare the area to be established as a registered runway. It’s now very well set up and has also been used to land private jets and even an Icelandic Air Boeing 757 too. Blue Ice runways are exactly as their name suggests. Very solid established dense blue ice. The ice is generally kept clear of snow by the strong katabatibc winds. More info – https://antarctic-logistics.com/2016/08/29/blue-ice-airfields/

Olga a fellow passenger mentioned it was her birthday, so of course she should climb down the steps first. She was met by friends already at the glacier on a climbing trip in the area.

We had a few minutes to take photos and soak up this very special place. We didn’t need to hang around long to feel the true effect of the cold and those katabatibc winds. Climbing aboard our transfer vehicles to take us the 10Km to camp:

We had a quick introduction tour of the camp and facilities and it was time for dinner including a celebratory birthday cake and champaign in honour of Olga. This place is well catered!

By now it was about 2am, but with 24hour sunlight it definitely didn’t feel late. I decided to take all the kit to my tent first, before turning in.