Camp Raven - 28 May

Yesterday, Saturday, we covered the 12.2km to Camp Raven and a glorious break for us all. My other ski-boot broke so I was in a sorry state and we had to keep stopping to attend to my feet.

Here at Camp Raven we have been enjoying the hospitality of Lou and Mark who have established a magnificent camp not far from DYE-2. They inhabit it for about four months of the year and look after the Hercules planes landing and taking off on training missions. There is a long tunnel tent with three portholes either side. At one end is a computer and they have telephone and oven and sauna while all around are gloves, boots, socks and hats and so on. Lou prepared the most delicious and healthy food for us. We had been dreaming of blueberry muffins and this morning Lou served us some, freshly baked.

Last night’s delicacies included wild mushroom parcels as well as other really amazing dishes. It was sheer heaven. We exchanged some of our nuts and fruit and oatcakes and Ovaltine. Lou and Mark come from Montana.

We talked so much that we had no time to wash. They let us know, too, that we stank to high heaven! The garlic in the meal they served added to the aroma emanating from us. My Mum’s reaction was, ‘Surely a wash would have been more urgent than food.’ It wasn’t.

It has been a revelation exploring DYE-2. Karen thought she wouldn’t be able to get up the ladders to explore the upstairs but Pasi and Harvey came to the rescue and gave her a piggy back. We found old buildings so dirty but we took pictures of the switches and dead generators and found they had been made by General Electric. I was excited about that because eVent, my main sponsor, is a subsidiary company of GE.

All around we found cigarette butts and evidence of toilet going. We watched an old newsreel from 1988 with stories of Gorbachov. It was as if we were caught in a time-warp, weird. The base and everything in it were supposed to be trashed but nothing looks trashed. Karen and Pasi and I found an old trolley and Pasi and I wheeled Karen around in it on the first floor.

We discovered some video footage of Volkswagen making their tracks to build a road through the snow. In the bedrooms were cigarette butts and broken records. I imagined it was like going on to the Titanic or being in Pompeii when it was first excavated.

Lou and Mark have been coming here for the past ten years. Lou very generously offered me her ski-boots but Harvey and Pasi picked up bolts and screws and nuts and put metal pieces into the boots and a big screw across the bar. It may work on one boot but we had to cut the other one so it may not work with it.

It will be easier now that Karen is moving on her own but my feet are the big handicap at the moment. As we prepare to leave this amazing place, we now have to focus on a new point in the distance towards which we are motivated to strive.

We have been thinking about the challenges and our responses to them so I shall share these thoughts with you in a separate bulletin.

(Anna 28 May.)