Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
I made a little speech of thanks in Italian over the loudspeaker, and they presented me with a
satellite map, signed by everyone, with the places I had visited marked with yellow asterisks. In-
stead of Victoria Land they had printed Sara Land.
Almost everyone came over to the ice runway to see me off. The LC-130 eventually hove into
view above the furthest mountain, and the Italians started jabbering, as if they hadn't really be-
lieved it was going to come at all. The plane was flown by a crew from a Pisa-based squadron of
the air force. It made the round trip from Italy via Christchurch, and shut down for one night at
McMurdo on the way from Terra Nova Bay back to New Zealand. After a batch of scientists had
emerged from the hold, and much armwaving and kissing and a slew of mouthed imprecations to
write, I walked up the ramp and into the back of the plane.
A pair of Italian fire engines chased us up the runway as we left so that our departure resembled
a scene from
Dad's Army
. Even then I hadn't left them, as Gaetano had radioed the captain, a
friend of his, and told him to let me sit next to him, so I was ushered straight up to the flight deck.
