Things end.
Our 14-month stay in the white wilderness (which sounded as
long as a lifetime) came to the last month, then to the last week and then
finally to the last day.
It awoke a lot of mixed feelings, not only within each
individual but also within the team, part wants to stay, part wants to go. Part is looking forward to be reunited with
family and loved ones but part of you is sad for leaving this very special
continent, a continent that became our home.
And what a home it has been?
Landscapes that are so beautiful and so large, so wide, so open and so
empty. Colours that to the casual
observer might be called white which in the detail are ever changing and ever
mind blowing. Pinks, purples, blues,
greens, yellows, and millions of variations of the above. A beauty that can be described as void of
emotion or memory. A beauty that one
moment blows your mind but the next can blow you away. A beauty at times so inhospitable and so
harsh that it ever stays out of reach.
But things end and so we became more and more aware that our
days on this continent are limited.
Unfortunately, for an over winterer the stay on the ice does not
continually build up to end on a high note.
The last part of our stay was partially filled with what makes the
wilderness so alluring. A little too
many ego's, a little too much politicking a little too much of what humans do
when resources are scarce. It may seem
that it ruined some of the experience but I think it highlighted what made this
experience so special. To have so much
space, to share thousands of hectares with only 9 other people is quite
something. Sharing the 3 000 square
meters inside the base, at times, was something different of course but to
experience a year without any threats of crime or to not have a constant man
made media deluge to digest was a true sabbatical for the soul.
So to stand at the end of this adventure I ask myself if
this expedition was what I expected it would be? I think in many respects it wasn't. I expected a little more outdoor adventure and
maybe a little more camaraderie.
Although, it is comforting to believe things might turn out as we
expect, the surprises life has in store for us is sometimes the biggest gifts
of them all. So, for the sake of the
argument, to want what we expected would be to forfeit the incredible privilege
to see Antarctica, as I surely never expected to see it.
As we leave, we need to admit how small our lives felt at
times. We became so engrossed in the
tiniest nuances of our lives in and around SANAE. Integrating back into society might be more
challenging than we realise but as we walk away from the white wilderness,
friends made and experiences shared I hope we will be forever changed.
(Also published in our last newsletter)
