We have a spring in our step now that the horrors of the Arctic winter seem to have passed and the Arctic spring has arrived. It doesn't mean that the temperature is much warmer, but boy is it nice to have lots more hours of light. Plodding around in evil weather in the dark can be very mind numbing, I assure you.
We've got blue skies and the sun is shining, temperatures are running around -35C to -38C, and we've managed to pack over 182km in since the start – which is beginning to feel pretty good. Progress is much better than last month and we are all feeling in high spirits – apart from the usual physical ailments which tend to come with the territory.
Talking of high spirits I think we managed to slip a good April Fool by the operations team back in London. We left an audio message saying that we'd found a sea container locked in the ice – and that expedition member Martin was in the process of breaking it open. Maybe the second message saying we'd found it full of ping pong balls gave us away – but I hope it got them going for a short while.
Martin did an audio for his local radio station back home last night and I heard him describing the scenery – he was giving a fantastic sculptural visual impression of the ice until he suddenly said, "actually it reminds me of giant marsh mallows ..." Maybe some kind soul will oblige his fantasies when the supply plane gets here.
The ice has been pretty volatile around us recently. The other day Ann got stranded on a floe after it literally broke off on front of our eyes, and yesterday Martin and I found ourselves in a similar situation.
We've had some company over the last few days. No, not Arctic foxes or polar bears – but a very fast-moving and noisy plane, possibly military. It has zoomed past us five or six times now – must be keeping an eye on us I guess.
