Delirious happiness from getting on a plane to Barneo after an 8 day delay gave way to a long night in flying objects without windows or security briefings. Having lived with an image of the cracked airstrip for the past week, I was weary about the landing. Boom! AN-74 … [Read more...]
Leaving Polar Waiting Room
Waiting in Svalbard for the past two weeks for the departure to North Pole have had all the ingredients of John Le Carre novel: an international get together, a diplomatic stand-off, burly men, mercenaries, good baddies, insurmountable obstacles and a happy ending … [Read more...]
Curveballs: Sunken Airstrip and the Race Against Time
The landing strip video above reveals a forthcoming drama of today. The runway at the Barneo floating Arctic station that cracked some three days ago, has partially sunk this morning making it an unviable airstrip. That means delay of at least 5 days as … [Read more...]
CAN YOU EAT 10 MINCE PIES IN ONE GO?
She was sitting by a roaring fire in an English pub with a plate of 10 mince pies in front of her. She proceeded to obliterate them one by one in a ritual of body-feeding and pie-sacrifice. No, Christina Franco was not doing a refashioned American ‘hot-dog’ eating challenge. … [Read more...]
Why Do We Climb?
'Mountains are not stadiums where I satisfy my ambition to achieve, they are the cathedrals where I practice my religion...I go to them as humans go to worship. From their lofty summits I view my past, dream of the future and, with an unusual acuity, am allowed to experience … [Read more...]
