This plane is Hercules C-130, which is super impressive. You get to this little bus, see this terrible plane, and enter through the back. You then sit down each other in these longitudinal seats. Then, set off on a seven-hour trip without toilets, surrounded by some snacks, lots of sounds – just sit until you first see Antarctica.
You’ll see these beautiful ice shelves from the small windows you see there. The first thing I see when I walk out is ice everywhere. You are really new to this environment and sometimes feel a little bit like on another planet.
There is an Italian station there and we should be staying for a day. But our very fast knowledge is that in French, we say enAntarcticmeaning “no predictions in Antarctica” because the weather is unpredictable. So instead of staying for a night, we stayed for nearly a week.
This radio station is just a logistics station. It’s not about receiving people, everyone who stays there stops others from coming in. It’s a real logistical challenge for the people working there, so they want us to leave as quickly as possible. But the weather is so unpredictable that you can’t just fly inland. You need to wait until the weather is almost stable and the pilot says, “I’m ready to fly” because he has the last word.
I still had data problems before and I’m trying to connect to the internet. There, like the internet in the 90s, you know, Beep sound. I tried to log in, and finally, about two or three hours later, on a computer, I got to the stage and said, “OK, I’m going to log in to your account so you can download your content. Please give me your phone number. I’m going to send you a text message to log in.” That’s two-factor verification, and it doesn’t work because there is obviously no phone service. So, due to this two-factor verification, I can’t access my data.
Finally, we took a plane. It’s a small, a Basler BT-67 aircraft that comes from Canada, flies in Antarctica and then returns to Canada at the end of the season. The plane took four hours. This is an unpressurized plane. You make sure to wear all your clothes and prepare to go out in Concordia as it is about 30 degrees Celsius. We are very scared.
The first thing that happened after landing in Concordia was this feeling of dizziness, vertigo. I don’t know when I arrived, your sea level was 3200 meters higher than sea level, so you’ll feel a little bit above sea level. After four hours on this small plane, you only see the flatness of the white and you don’t reach Concordia.
From a distance, you see the station. The station seems small because there is almost nothing around – no mountains, nothing. You have this Boulot Dans l’Estomacas we say in French, like butterflies because, you know, “Wow, this will be my year of home.” We came to Concordia station, and the crew who had just spent the year and now left the station were waiting for us and were very welcoming. They took us to the station because we sometimes feared high altitude sickness. They want to make sure no one carries anything heavy and we don’t do physical exercise. They told us: “Keep calm for the next few days.”
The station consists of two towers, each with 18 faces. It’s basically white, with a little orange, and that’s it. You enter through a tunnel between the two towers. You take off your boots and leave everything there. It’s very small. Then you can go left, which is the “Celebration Tower”. Inside, you have dormitories, laboratories and hospitals. It has three layers. In the middle is the dormitory and on the upper floor is the laboratory. It is called the “Calm Tower” to keep it calm. Then we headed to another tower from the right side of the entrance. It has technical knowledge. On the second floor, there is a video room with a movie and sports room. On the top, you have a living room, a dining area and a kitchen.
Within five minutes, you have already made a tour of your new home. It’s really impressive because you think: “Someone has to wander around nowhere. Someone has to take the first step.” It’s incredible. So many people have nothing. We got here and we had the luxury of owning this building to protect us from this environment.
Outside this world, it is like that there. We’ve seen a lot of photos of Antarctica, we may have read a lot of books, but you’ve never been to the center of Antarctica, which is completely different. No life – no birds, no trees – there is actually nothing, only ice and wind.
