Just wondering is there any sort of rules/restrictions etc once you are down in Antarctica? Do the various country sections have different restrictions/quarantine items etc
What about once you hit any of the bases do you need passports and visas to enter or is it considered one all encompassing "country" in that regard?
Will you be meeting up with the Spaniard cycling across from December 1?
What sort of infrastructure is setup for communication, is it purely station based and then you rely on satellite phones & how would coverage be that low surely not many satellites overhead?
There are tons of rules, most important of which is permitting and a "security" umbrella organization. The biggest consideration is rescue, so you must (as an American traveling there) operate under a rescue and infrastructure group like TAC (The Antarctic Company), which is a most Russian organization that primarily operates out of the Russian Novo base. We are using TAC, and they have been awesome. The conditions of the permit are many, including managing waste, impact, etc.
We are operating in conjunction with TAC and a few other expeditions. The benefit of this is shared costs and increased support. This is why we are collaborating with Arctic Trucks and also Walking with the Wounded. We all benefit from the expanded support net of the additional vehicles and personnel.
There are no visas or immigration. We do exit and then reenter ZA.
We are likely to meet up with several cool folks along the way, including the possibility of meeting another ExPo member at the SP. How fun is that!
We rely on satellite communications, and the Iridium system is the only reliable one in Antarctica. We can use BGAN near the coast, then it is all Iridium. We have two Iridium phones and one TextAnywhere device. We will also have a PLB and 2M radios.
The logistics are incredible. Two years of planning. . .
