Leaving

Ready to go onboad flight P004R, a Herc LC-130

After two weeks of watching planes come and go, my turn finally came. The twenty of us were originally scheduled to go out on Saturday, but the flight was cancelled due to mechanical problems. Monday morning, we woke up to the flight being delayed almost immediately, so no one was holding there breath fro getting out. But, the plane came, a couple of hours late, so we said our goodbyes to the five winter-overs still at Pole, and headed to McMurdo.

We got to McMurdo in time for dinner, which include real, rathere than powdered, milk for the first time in nine months. It was so good. McMurdo is a lot bigger than Pole (there are almost 1,000 people here right now), so things were busy and the cafeteria was a little bit overwhelming.
  
After dinner a couple of us went exploring. It's been in the teens here for temps, so it is the warmest weather we've had for a long time. I hiked around in jeans and a long sleeve shirt, which was great after a season of running around in Carhartt's and boots.

The mountains across the bay from McMurdo

We hiked out to Hut Point, which was a walk I had taken when I got here 9 months ago. This time around the bay was iced over, so no whales. There were seals, though.

The seals are getting ready to have their pups, so they weren't
very active.

We also hiked up Observation Hill, which had an amazing view of Mac Town.

This morning we did a 9 mile hike out to see Castle Rock and Scott Base (the Kiwi base about a mile and half from McMurdo).

Castle Rock in front, with Mt. Erubus smoking in the background.

Bag drag this evening and then flying to CHC tomorrow afternoon, if all goes well.

Be home in a couple of weeks. See everyone then!