We are underway!

Greetings earthlings, this is the Fosdickans calling from Planet
Fosdick. This place was a galaxy away for more than a year until
finally our craft made a bumpy landing onto the strange surface here
that we call "snice". And it is. Very.

After the put in of our opener - the gay tribute band "The Basler Boys"
two saturdays ago, the main act arrived on stage two days later and the
field gig began. Two LC130 flights later, we had dropped our 5
fosdickans and 9500lbs (around 4500kg) of cargo on the ground
(literally, being combat offloaded off the back of the LC130 at speed)

This place is legendary - the great storm of 06 has gone down as the
biggest in recent history - tents were mostly destroyed and skidoos
blown "like bingo wings" across the snow several hundred metres away
from camp. The field safety team at McMurdo still use the bent snow
pickets as a demo of what can happen in "Annarrdicka". On our second
night the wind picked up and the paranoia followed. Fawna thought that
her guy attachment had ripped out and Danny didn't sleep a wink as he
thought we were all going to die. On realising that this was merely 20
knots, and the only thing blowing across the snow was..er..fawna's
orange bag and some snow, then people relaxed and realised that maybe
the great storm was but a one off. So far.

Since then the weather has been nothing but dingle (the British term for
bluebird) all round. No clouds, no wind, just plain, glorious sunshine.
Brilliant.

After four days of intensive fieldwork we have begun to unravel the
mysteries of the elusive Fosdick Mountains. Today we abseiled (rappelled
for Americans...) down some precipitous rock faces to measure layers of
metamorphic gneiss while enjoying the low cresting sun across the
horizon. Chris even managed to sneak a quick skate in across the blue
ice after lunch. We are adapting to camp life with cooking, washing(our
dishes, not our bodies) and eating voluminous quantites of cheese in
order to become as voluptuous as possible. Tomorrow marks day 10 in the
Fosdicks and we are looking forward to more geology, more adventures and
more cheese. Cheers!