Saturday 4 May : Going home...
The Compaq Pole II team left Khatanga at 10 o'clock this morning. They should be landing in Moscow at about 14.00.
The return to Belgium (Zaventem) is planned for Monday 06 May at 12.55 by Lufthansa flight LH 5920 from Frankfurt.
We would inform our most enthusiastic visitors that, as the Compaq Pole II expedition is now over, we will be following more regularly from now on (two updates per week) the other expeditions that are still on the pack ice
Not to be missed - next Tuesday or Wednesday, 07 or 08 May, in our new VIDEO page - the pictures of the Belgian Television News broadcasting the arrival of the two men and their first post-adventure interviews and - in about a fortnight's time - the photographic gallery of our expedition (at least 80 captioned photographs).
Friday 3 May (day 68) : Finally on terra ferma...
Friday 4pm. From Monday May 6th on, our following of the "Other Expeditions / Live" will be updated. With a series of setbacks in the progress of the people who set out from Ward Hunt.
Friday 10 am. Here are the audio files. There are three of them as we were cut off and have not had time to edit them.
Merci à tous ceux qui'ont aidé
à réaliser le suivi de cette expédition
DUNG VAN MEERBEECK (informatique)
CHRISTIAN DE MARLIAVE (Cerpolex)
JORGE CORDOVA (production)
DAVID GLADSTEEN (production)
PAUL 'O DONNELL (traducteur)
ONATHAN SQUIRE (traducteur)
FRANCIS VAN PEER (traducteur)
MARTINE JONES (traduction)
GIGI JOHNSON (routeuse)
JUDITH FRANSSEN (attachée de presse) |
Friday 9.30 am. Finally, they called. The audio will be ready in an hour. The events that have occurred since the last satellite phone call (Iridium). The final hours of a grand adventure.
Friday 9 a.m. Finally, at around 4 p.m. the team of Compaq Pole II was picked up from the ice. Then they headed for Chelyushkin, where they arrived at around 8.30 p.m. There, the pilots wanted to stop and rest before flying to Khatanga - they were too tired because of their intensive activity over the last few days. So the whole team reached the town of Khatanga this morning at 6.30 a.m. (12.30 local time). As they have not yet called HQ, we cannot give any more detailed information about how things went yesterday. We just remember that at 3.15 p.m. Alain called HQ with his batteries almost flat, to tell us that the MI 8 had not yet arrived. No news since.
We hope to have more news later in the day, and while you wait, the most ardent readers will take the time to look at the document that we are publishing today about the highlights of the expedition.
Thursday 2 May (day 67) : Pick up operation is underway, and live...
Even though we are in the English version of the website, we have decided to publish the translation of the French version just as it is with the audio tracks (in French, for the most part) attached.
Hoping that some of our readers understand French and will be able to benefit from the atmosphere of the satellite slots which accurately report the way in which things have been developing during the last hours of this great adventure. Thank you for your understanding.
Thursday 9.30 a.m. In order to allow those of you that have the time to experience the toings and froings of this difficult recovery more fully, we are today publishing the satellite slots (Iridium) as they reached us. Either from David, who is currently (9.30 a.m.) on his way to the Compaq Pole II camp, or from the Hubert-Dansercoer duo. The first audio tracks attached are the first that we received this morning.
1. HQ, 5.55 am : Alain explains that David is in Stredny but that the pilots are not in complete agreement about the forthcoming flight, for the operation is risky.
2. HQ, 9.30 am :: David Gladsteen explains that he has just landed at Cape Arktichewski and that it he is therefore on his way to the expedition's camp.
3. HQ, 10 am : Alain rings HQ to announce the good news. One can hear in his voice that he is experiencing an important moment of the expedition.
4. HQ, 10.33 am : David calls from the chopper but the conversation is inaudible. We are publishing it nevertheless because of the atmosphere it imparts and to give an idea of the din in an MI 8 during flight.
5. HQ, 11 am : HQ calls Alain to get his first impressions at one of the key moments of his expedition. He is a little bit bitter… In an hour or so, it will be Dixie's turn to tell us what's bothering him.
6. HQ, 12.55 am : Alain calls HQ to tell us that the choppers are refuelling and that, after this operation, they will only have ninety minutes more flying time to reach the place where they both are waiting.
7. HQ, 1 p.m : David in turn calls HQ from the place where the two choppers have put down to refuel. He gives his impressions about the journey and about the spectacle unfolding before his eyes during this part of the flight.
8. HQ, 1.35 pm : Dixie calls HQ to give us his first impressions (in Flemish) about this huge adventure.
9. HQ, 3.13 pm : Alain Hubert calls to inform us the helicopter is no longer in the area and that a strong wind is pushing them towards the North. He is afraid that the machine might be unable to locate them.
Wednesday 1 May (day 66) :
Wednesday 5 p.m. HQ has just learned that David (the cameraman) arrived at Stredny around 1 p.m. and is waiting for the helicopter to arrive from Barneo. The pick-up of Compaq Pole II should take place tonight.
Wednesday 8 a.m.: Another change in the programme, early this morning - I suppose we should have expected it.
David Glasdteen of Alice Production (who will be filming the pick-up) is leaving in a few hours, probably around 11 a.m., heading for the Barneo base on an Antonov 76, a 2½ hour flight. Cerpolex is closing down the base today
Then: David climbs aboard an MI 8 which lands at Stredny, and which will wait until the second (support) MI 8, which is leaving from Chelyushkin has successfully made the fuel drop approximately 250-300 km from the coast.
As they are in constant satellite contact, it is the No. 2 helicopter (from Chelyushkin) which will give MI 8 No. 1, standing by at Stredny, the OK to take off and fly directly to the camp of Compaq Pole II. David will fly to pick up the two men (about 3 hours' flight from Stredny to Compaq Pole II), return to the fuel depot, then return to Chelyushkin and end the flight to Khatanga.
Concerning the timing, it is almost the same as yesterday.
Continued in our next bulletin.
Tuesday 30 April (day 65) :
Tueday 4pm : Latest : an helicopter should arrive at Tchelyouschkine tomorrow to be standby while an other helicopter MI 8 is flying to the Compaq Pole II camp, making a fuel depot en route... In that case, both men should be picked up from the ice Thursday evening...
Tuesday 9am : Still waiting, de Antonov 2 will not fly, too many open waters / Looking for helicopters...
During this great polar adventure, we have encouraged our visitors to send in their travel stories. Today, we publish one of them; a few extracts from the story of a journey to Mustang, an ancient kingdom in Nepal and nowadays a province of that country, which was off-limits to tourists until 1992.
Monday 29 April (day 64) :
Monday 4pm : Latest news
The Russian pilots on standby at Stredny with the Antonov 2 are now demanding from St. Petersburg - before going to look for the two men on the ice - satellite maps of the pack ice showing the state of the
ice between Stredny and the latest position of Compaq Pole II. If there
are too many leads, they won't leave.
Monday, 10pm: No, they haven't left Khatanga, the operation has been postponed.
Setback at Khatanga (sorry for all the contradictory toings and froings of these bits of information): we have just learned, via Cerpolex/Khatanga, that the Russians require the presence of two helicopters at Khatanga for them to be able to go to look for our two men on the ice. This is so that they can have a machine on the ground as standby, in case a rescue operation should be required in the immediate future.
That's how things stand this morning. No news about the arrival of an additional MI 8 at Khatanga… Alain and Dixie are of course furious.
Support team left Khatanga…
As envisaged (what a miracle!), the cameraman was able to leave aboard the MI 8 chopper from Khatanga to Tchelyouschkine at 7 o'clock this morning.
