After arriving in Murmansk on Thursday evening we have
busied ourselves with the usual supply purchase and logistics planning. On
Sunday morning we packed everything into the vans and set off for Varzuga
village. The travel was smooth and the last section of dirt road was remarkably
well kept meaning arrival into the village around 7.30pm.
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| Arrival into Lower Camp |
We got all the supplies and luggage into the lodge and found
a delicious soup and pasta dish waiting for us care of Sousha. Millie (Middle
Camp cook) and Ceri (Lower Camp cook) set to work to get the cold supplies into
the fridge and after everything was in it’s place we sat down to a civilised
supper. Someone even managed to find a bottle of red wine.
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| Division of supplies |
Now to the most pressing matter. The river. It’s certainly a
lot thinner and there is far more open water than this time last year. We arrived
and were a little down cast but a light rain had began and the forecast is for
nights to remain above freezing. Even as Bill and I made our inspection there
were small rafts of ice coming down stream from above and this was the tell
tale last year that things are starting to move. Unlike last year they are
breaking up and carrying on down stream. Last year the chunks were busily
freezing up against the blockage. It would make everything complete if we woke
up to a broken river tomorrow.
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| First night inspection |
For now we have bluebird skies and warm sun to transfer snow melt into the river, then under the ice and then to carry it away. The change from last night is highly encouraging with a nice blue channel opening down the true left bank. Everyone is jolly and refreshed this morning and as ever we have a focused and driven team helping us both Russian and British.
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| Bluebird Sky this morning |
More camp detail tomorrow as people and the tundra starts to wake up.
Jack Selby (Operations Manager)
