Day 14 17.12.22 - Union Glacier and the first contact with home.

Flight to Union Glacier. Up early. Shave with my loyal Gillette razor. Baby wipe clean. New set of thermals and underwear…..

Sun is up. First plane arrived. Desperately waiting for the plane to come back before the fog….

Waiting……. 12:15pm …. waiting….

Finally two planes arrive. We take the last pictures of base camp. Last goodbye to Vinson and we are off. Question is: will we ever be here again? Probably not.

Spectacular flight to Union Glacier - so many peaks buried into deep ice and mostly untouched. Flight lasts one hour and we arrive in Union Glacier.

Spectacular facilities; very pampered tent. We have a quick lunch and we go for a 10km glacier perimeter cycle using the snow bikes with the fat wheels.

After that it is the first shower in 10 days: a bucket of hot water mixed to snow to create a 5min shower. Finally clean and shaved, we all concentrate into the souvenir shop - $30 a t-shirt but you can only buy it here.

Union Glacier has a satellite phone- first contact with home in 10 days: Amanda (tears), Olivia. A message for Giulia from Antarctica. And then Nonna.

The last supper. We are now a team. Dinner together. All 8 of us. Lots of exchanges of photos, emails and contact details. Lots of laughter and a bit of sadness; the adventure is at the end.

It’s party time for the staff of Union Glacier. But the guests are not invited.

Still, it’s midnight when I retire into my plush tent. Not only I have a mattress but also the bed is on springs. Wow!!!