The long haul home

It has been more than two days since we've had a full report from the team. By now they will have had some time to lick their wounds, rest their weary bodies and will have gathered their gear together, ready for their long journey home.

Today, Wednesday 7 June, they will depart their adventure destination - Kangerlussuaq - on the west coast of Greenland. Kangerlussuaq, while a sparsely-populated township formerly dominated by a US air base, will have proved a welcome relief for the team after such a gruelling haul across the ice, with all its hardships and dangers.

The team will fly out by Air Greenland to Kulusuk Island on the east coast, where they will catch a flight to Reykjavik in Iceland. The route they will fly almost echoes the route they have just skied and, who knows, if the weather is clear, they may see the vast ice-cap from the air - perhaps even some of the places they'd camped, like DYE 2.

Later today, once they arrive in Iceland, they will have a short overnight stay (flights providing) at the youth hostel where they stayed at the beginning of their adventure. No doubt, too, they'll make good use of Reykjavik's food and leisure facilities. It will be the nearest thing they've seen to a big city for quite some time.

Reykjavik is the capital of Iceland and is the world's most northern national capital. Close to the Arctic Circle, it only has four hours of daylight in winter - but, in summer, the nights are almost as bright as daytime. Population is almost 115,000 - around twice the size of Inverness.

With luck, and if they have time, the team may also be able to communicate more easily from Reykjavik - with good telephone connections, internet and email all being available. Their poor, worn-out satellite phone, with its depleted batteries has been a source of frustration in the last few days. All of us here are just desparate to see some of their photographs from the ice - to get a real sense of what it was like for the team. Perhaps they will be able to send us something by e-mail. We'll try to be patient. Let's hope the news media are just as patient.

Because the team completed their mission one week ahead of schedule, it has meant a lot of work behind the scenes - at very short notice - to rearrange flight bookings for the team and their gear.

The team's original plan was to fly from Reykjavik to London Heathrow on Thursday 15 June. Now that they want to fly one week earlier, Patricia McCormack has had to make quite strenuous efforts to re-schedule and re-book their tickets - and it looks like this could be a very expensive business!

You can sense Patricia's frustration in the following quotes from some recent emails which we received from her:

"What a day! (Monday) I've sent three text messages to Anna (not knowing if she could receive them) asking if she's happy for us to pay extra?  I’ve just now had a discussion with Mandy and she recommends waiting till tomorrow when the marketing woman in Icelandair is back. I rang again and argued myself sick with the other woman and she wouldn’t even make a provisional change unless I paid her the money. I had my credit card ready but I said I’d give it till just before closing time at 5pm to see if Anna can get through by phone."

and today...

"Today is going to be a nightmare for me. I still haven’t sorted their flights out for tomorrow. Karen rang me back last night after Anna had rung when someone else was ringing me. They said they were promised they wouldn’t have to pay for changing the tickets so I have sent an e-mail to Prithi and told her I would call her soon after 9 o'clock. In the meantime, I have appointments to attend to throughout the day. What a time for them to call me in when all the aftermath is about to start."

"Mandy asked me to let her know as soon as I have sorted tomorrow’s flights out. The party mentioned in a message to Harvey is a party for his sister’s wedding to be held in London. All will become clear in due course. Karen and Jacek have onward flights booked so I need to get them on the early flight tomorrow. Mandy wants Andy on it, too."

Patricia also passed on an important message from Karen - none of the team has any serious injury.

Despite the continuing drama, we're all trying to keep calm here - and can assure you that every effort is being made to get the team home, safe and sound, tomorrow.

Watch this space. As soon as we know more, we'll let you know too.

Breaking news - good news

Patricia just e-mailed us, today at 9.45, to say: "Am presently on phone to airline. All are re-booked for tomorrow morning and at no extra charge - but they must print out their new tickets or go to the ticket desk in Reykjavik before they book in and get the print-out from them. Great news!"