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| Goa - 2005 Santosh Trophy Champions |
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| Support Soccer Activities at the grassroots in our villages |
| Vacationing in Goa this year-end - Carry and distribute Soccer Balls |
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This is the fourteenth posting of my trip to the icy continent. The others
can
be found in my blog at Link:
http://goantoantarctica.blogspot.com
Last year when sighted we McMurdo for the first time the Americans said it
reminded them of an old mining town. The small hills were a dark red brown
and some of the buildings were made of corrugated sheets. We docked the
Nathaniel Palmer at what looked like a harbor only to the Captain. To me it
looked like we had slid on a slab of ice. MCMurdo doesn't have a single
plant and you are not allowed to bring any either. A scientist got in
trouble because his wife sent him an autumn leaf from their garden! When
trucks transported us to our spartan dorms we saw that the place was teeming
with people. It was the peak of summer which is when Raytheon transports
almost 2500 people to the station. Engineers, carpenters, welders,
scientists, cooks and helicopter pilots - they all fly in from Christchurch.
Later I heard there is a pecking order with lady pilots at the top! Everyone
eats at a giant mess hall and the food is very good and free. Salad bars,
sandwich counters and a large buffet with hot food. It's a great place to
people watch and these are no ordinary people! Everyone sports several
earrings and long hair is de rigueur for both sexes as are worn to the bone
overalls. It's a major faux pas to wear anything new as we soon found out.
We also found out that although we had weathered the scariest of storms,
severe isolation and -50oC temperatures, we were still considered soft as we
rode a fancy ship. Real men (and women) dropped from helicopters into the
horrendous Dry Valleys and camped for days in tents, cooked their own food
and never showered. They lugged their own equipment and moved around on snow
mobiles looking for meteors. As we walked around we noticed that a few wore
green jackets unlike the rest of the unwashed masses in red. These were the
lords of the South Pole, many of who worked at the neutrino detector Ice
Cube, which is embedded deep into the pole. The US also has a station right
at the pole which holds 300 people. With our inferiority complexes tucked at
the back of our mind we set out to shop - this can put anyone in a good
mood. There is one shop at McMurdo and it holds everything - alcohol, DVDs,
candy, and tons of T Shirts and sweatshirts for souvenirs. Everything has
the penguin-Antarctic theme. With shopping behind us we went in search of
sprits. McMurdo has no restaurants (everyone eats at the mess) but it has
three bars one of which claims sophistication by calling itself a wine bar.
Everything closes at 11 pm and when you step out you are hit by the blinding
light and nothing to do! I peeped into a tiny chapel with probably the best
view in the world - vast expanses of whiteness and a range of almost perfect
volcanic mountains. A chaplain holds his mass and after that yoga
enthusiasts trickle in for their class. Space is at a premium. We walk
around and find a well stocked library and knitting group.
A major sightseeing spot in McMurdo is Scott's hut. Scott, a British
explorer would have been the first man to reach the South Pole but was
beaten to it by a Norwegian named Amundsen. Scott and his group
unfortunately perished on their way back. But his hut gives us a glimpse of
the intrepid and courageous explorers whose passion for finding new worlds
surpassed all else. In the low hut we saw half eaten seals, carcasses of
sheep from New Zealand, huge tins of powered chocolate and biscuits, their
clothes and tools. Because the continent is so dry, these dead animals
remain almost mummified. When we turned around and saw the monstrous
Nathaniel Palmer with its hot showers and fancy gadgets we felt like wealthy
tourists on a cruise liner! Pretending to be locals we walk back up the hill
for the next adventure that lay ahead of us. Returning to New Zealand in
C-141 airplanes! We were cool or so we convinced ourselves!
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* G * O * A * N * E * T *** C * L * A * S * S * I * F * I * E * D * S *
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Spread the Christmas cheer - even when you're not here!
Send Christmas Greetings to your loved ones in Goa.
2005 Christmas Package - Flowers, Bubbles and Layers of Love.
http://www.goa-world.com/expressions/xmas/
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