It was the evening of 8th December, my wedding anniversary. I was sitting inside an aircraft with 6 other colleagues from all over the world. We were travelling to the rarest destination. The southernmost, coldest, windiest and driest continent on earth, “Antarctica” – the land of blue ice, the white desert and so on. It was the chartered flight from Cape Town, South Africa and there was more cargo inside that plane than humans. We weren’t travelling in a high-tech Boeing or a similar aircraft for this journey though. In fact, it wouldn’t gel with the kind of journey one would otherwise anticipate. There was excitement all over. I also had another pilot for company. He was supposed to take us on our further journey by a smaller aircraft. A 75 year young pilot with a high level of fitness who had flown all over Antarctica with the enthusiasm of a 30 year old.
You’ll be wondering why was I on this plane and why was I going to Antarctica. Well, I was part of Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica ISEA 38. This is the 38th batch of the expedition since it was launched in 1981 by our then prime minister Indira Gandhi. It was one of the most talked about events at that time and was also of great strategic importance for India. Those days the expeditions used to be flagged off by the Prime Minister. A ship used to directly sail from Goa on a 60 day voyage to Antarctica.
For first few expeditions till 1984, there was no winter station and the expedition used to be mainly during the Antarctic summer which is from November to March. The scientists used to live in tents in that extreme harsh environment for a few weeks.
During the third expedition, India built its first station called Dakshin Gangotri. This station was located at 70°45′S 11°35′E. This station became operational on 26th January 1984. It was around 2500 km away from the South pole. The republic day was celebrated at this station in Antarctica for the first time. Indian scientists did their first ever winter at this station. This was a fully functional station with all the required facilities for research at that time. Unfortunately, this station was abandoned in 1991 as it was submerged in ice. There is a glacier in Antarctica called Dakshin Gangotri, named after this station.
The Russian Station Novolazarevskaya has an airstrip which is a blue ice runway, located 10 kms away from Maitri and Novolazerevskaya, that serves both research-related and commercial flights. This runway is called the Novo runway. It’s considered as the third most dangerous runway in the world.
The existence of this runway dates back to 1981 – 1991 when Russian aviators had established the shortest air route to East Antarctica from Africa. This is one approach to East Antarctica through Southern tip of Africa at Cape Town. It is a five and half hour intercontinental flight from Cape Town to the Novo airbase. The chartered flights are operated from Cape Town to Novo runway by a South African company called Antarctica Logistic Center International (ALCI). ALCI serves as an intercontinental air bridge between Cape Town and the ALCI Airbase at Novo Runway during the austral summer from late October to beginning of March. This is the time of the year when Antarctica is at its spectacular best. Each month of this season has very special characteristics.
India then constructed another permanent research base called Maitri in 1989. This was set up in a moderate climatic zone to reduce the danger from harsh climatic conditions. This is situated at 70°46′00″S 11°43′53″E on the rocky mountainous region called Schirmacher Oasis. It is only 5 kms away from the Russian Station Novolazarevskaya and 10 kms from the Novo runway. It has the capacity to accommodate 25 people for winter and a maximum of 65 people for summer. It has modern facilities to conduct research in various disciplines like microbiology, botany, geomagnetism, meteorology, nuclear sciences, atmospheric sciences, glaciology, geology etc. This station is fully operational even today and Indian scientists are engaged in research work during summer and winter sessions every year.
The ALCI services are covered under the DROMLAN (Dronning Maud Land Air Network) agreement which is an international co-operative project established in 2002. The members of this agreement are India, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, Russia, South Africa, Sweden and the United Kingdom who avail of ALCI services on a regular basis.
Well, it was quite some time now that we had taken off from Cape Town. Food and drinks were served in the aircraft and everybody was quite excited and looking forward to our first landing on the ice runway in Antarctica. We were moving all over the aircraft, trying to take pictures of both the interior and the exterior. At one point, we started seeing small ice pallets in the sea water. This was an indication that we are heading in the right direction. The sea had started freezing.
At the point called as Cape of Good hope near Cape Town, the two great oceans unite. They are the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. And you can distinctly feel the difference there. It’s an amazing sight to see those two mega oceans coming together like old friends. They together then become the Southern Ocean. As you go further west towards American continent, the South Pacific Ocean also joins the Southern Ocean. This ocean leads us all the way to Antarctica
As we travel further south towards Antarctica, the temperatures start dropping, leading to freezing of these oceans. This results in the formation of ice pellets. These pellets become bigger and bigger as you approach the Antarctic coast. Antarctica is a landmass covered with ice, surrounded by sea from all the sides. As the seas around Antarctica get completely frozen during the winters, the continent doubles its size as frozen oceans also form part of this continent. The average thickness of ice across Antarctica is 1.9 km with the maximum thickness being 5.4 km.
Back in the aircraft, we were busy appreciating and enjoying the beautiful creations of nature and also taking photographs. The scenery 10 km below was fantastic with the ocean looking like a beautiful mix of blue water and ice pallets. I am sure that no camera will give justice to those splendid sights but yes, those pictures will surely become a memory when we return to the mainland. It was also time to thank the almighty who bestowed these blessings on us. The whole situation was making me quite emotional. For us, the world is majorly the place we live in. Our home, city, state etc. When we step out of all that and witness something like Antarctica, you really salute the almighty. It is something beyond anybody’s imagination. You can see nature in its purest, rawest form here.
Some more time passed, and we got the message on the display in the aircraft:
“Congratulations!! You have just crossed the South Polar Circle”.
It was just getting “WOW” with every moment and such messages on the screen were only taking our excitement to its peak. Crossing South Polar Circle, which is also called as Antarctic Circle meant we had actually entered the Antarctic territory. When we looked down, it was all ice in the ocean with a few traces of blue water here and there.
When we were just processing the fact that we had actually entered the Antarctic region, another message popped on the screen.
“We will be landing in Antarctica in about 90 minutes. The temperature at ALCI base is -7 deg C. Wind is 10m/s. PLEASE CHANGE INTO YOUR ANTARCTIC CLOTHING”
The excitement was at its peak. We quickly changed into our Antarctic clothing and started looking like astronauts. Everybody’s changing took around 45 mins, so another 45 mins and we would be actually walking on the land of blue ice. The most beautiful, pristine and the last continent ANTARCTICA. The plane had already started descending. It was good that it did not have windows for all the seats. This actually increased the suspense, and everybody was super curious about how it would be when we finally land.
That time had finally come! The plane touched the ground, sorry ice and yessss… we had landed on the Antarctic ice. WOW! What a feeling!!!!
The landing was so smooth that we never felt that we had landed on the 3rd most dangerous runway in the world…
The plane moved to the parking area. It and was finally stopped and the engines shut off by the pilot. And that’s it. We were finally there. Very few people in the world get the chance to visit this place and we suddenly became one of them. A lifetime member of the Antarctic community…
As soon as the door of the plane opened, we felt the chilling breeze gush inside. That gave us an idea of what must be there outside. They put up the ladders and asked us to start disembarking.
I reached the door, fully excited and curious, thanking the almighty again for bringing me here. It was a spectacular sight outside. All white and nothing else. The cold was there but it was pleasing and refreshing. Actually, the excitement levels were so high that we had forgotten about the cold.
I stared climbing down the stairs and finally the moment came when I touched my feet on the icy, Antarctic soil. I could see the Indian team approaching us in a truck with our Indian flag flying high on it.
It was a moment to experience and treasure. I was feeling extremely proud being there, being Indian and being one of the representatives of 1.2 billion people of this great country called India. My adventure had just begun!