Day one at Concordia

It is eleven pm, the sun is shining, and my first day at Concordia is over.

It has been a fun day. It started with a leisurely breakfast at the Concordia Summer Camp (where I live for the next three weeks), where the ambiance is much more relaxed than at the base itself.

My altitude sickness problems seem to be over, which makes life much more comfortable. I still get puffed faster than usual, but no longer have headaches.

JY and I started work this morning. It was good to get down to something useful after 10 days of traveling. We put in a full day's work, and are quite satisfied with the results: all the equipment has been unpacked and we have started assembling the first CASE-IPY station.

Just after lunch we got a lesson in FlexMobile driving. The FlexMobile is essentially a landrover on caterpillar tracks. We shall use it to install and visit the three CASE-IPY temporary seismic stations. Apart from having very sensitive steering, it is relatively simple to drive. A 10 minute lesson and we had our FlexMobile license. I wish my other driving license had been this easy to get!

I'm not quite up to speed with Concordia photos just yet. The one at the head of this post is of an iceberg off Dumont d'Urville under a cloudy sky.