Barneo, The Ice.

Barneo is our penultimate destination before the north pole, its a camp, set up by Russians as a research station. It is built at the end of march and taken down at the end of april as the ice breaks up. they fly the camp up and parachute it all out and build it they then parachute a bulldozer to make a runway on the ice. there has been a problem this year, the weather has delayed everything and the camp is still not "built". as its the reception area for everyone heading to the np this has potentially caused a back log of people (there are probably five groups due to do different trips to the np in the weather window of april) waiting to get the flight on a russian cargo plane up there, most famously prince harry team who are causing quite a stir here! The first group were supposed to leave today we were due to go up on monday. we think it may be two or three days delay here. we are staying in a sort of lodge/hostel thing and had a cross country ski today practicing.all went well. Its all pretty good although it is very very cold so that gives me something to worry about. Im chilled (ha ha) about the delay it gives more time for preparation. the other teams we have seen all look so expert and explorer ish i did think what the hell am i doing here!
will keep you posted!