Photo album: "From Paris towards Dumont d'Urville"

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We leave Paris Orly on December 1st, 1972 at 10 o'clock but, because of an unforeseen stop caused by an engine failure of the plane, we'll arrive in Hobart, Tasmania (Australia), only on Monday December 4th at 8 p.m. Thala Dan leaves the harbour on Wednesday 6th at 10 a.m. Because of a few technical problems on the ship we only leave d'Entrecasteaux canal on the morning of the next day. The sea is rough enough at the beginning of the journey therefore the progression is slow. On December 15th we travel around looking for big table icebergs to implant two radio beacons. It is only on the day after that we arrive in front of a compact enough ice pack, in sight of the continent.

On December 2nd, 1972, a member of the new IONO team (23rd mission) relaxes, drinking a cup of tea, during the stop in Bahrain.

On Friday December 1st, 1972, we leave Paris, Orly, aboard a Caravelle of Air France that brings us to Rome. There we embark on a Boeing 747 of the Australian company Qantas which gets us to Sydney, in Australia, after three stops (Bahrain, Bangkok and Singapore). Then a Boeing 727 of the ANSETT-ANA transports us to Melbourne and finally we fly to Hobart in a Douglas DC 9 of TAA. We find there the Danish polar ship Thala Dan which will bring us to Dumont d'Urville French base and get us back to Hobart at the end of the sojourn. I will proceed, then, to my around-the-World trip, visiting New Caledonia and Mexico before getting back to France.

It is the first time I'm travelling in a Boeing 747 and I appreciate the difference with DC 8 or Boeing 707 of the precedent trips, because the more spaced seat rows let more space to stretch out our legs and the double aisle allows to move more easily in the aircraft when we are tired of staying seated. On the contrary, in a single aisled airplane, the aisle is often obstructed with the flight attendant's trolleys when they serves drinks or meals.

We are flying eastwards, that is meeting the sun, since we have to compensate the ten-hour lag between Sydney and Paris during the journey the apparent duration of the days is shorter. As we set up the onboard time before each stop, the times between two meals is shorter accordingly and we have the feeling we are eating continuously. In the contrary, when we are flying westwards the apparent duration of the day exceeds 24 hours and we eat less frequently.

Two hours after leaving Singapore the chief pilot announce one of the four jet engines has failed and we must fly back to Singapore. Two hours later, around midnight, we land and, after some quick police formalities, a few coaches get us to a comfortable hotel where we can have a shower and sleep in a bed. This unexpected stop will last about twenty hours and we will resume our journey the next day around 7 p.m.

The next day, after lunch, with three friends, we negotiate with a taxi driver to drive us around and visit the town during the afternoon.  The photo shows a banana tree.

The Tiger Balm Garden gateway.

A group of young people in the Tiger Balm Garden.

A street in the Chinese district. We don't see much evolution yet compared with my last stay in 1968. Important changes will occur several years later.

A lot of sampans are still there in the canal.

This man makes his sampan move ahead pushing a pole against the bottom of the canal. This shows the canal is not very deep.

We end our visit in the botanic garden in the middle of trees pruned in the shape of animals. Then we go back to the hotel where the coaches take us back to the airport where we have confirmation the aircraft has been repaired and we can resume the journey. This unexpected stop after all has been very pleasant because it cut in two this long voyage and allowed us to rest and to visit Singapore.

We arrive in Hobart only on Monday December 4th around 8 p.m., that is 24 hours later that foreseen. We embark on Thala Dan the very evening but the ship will leave the harbour on Wednesday 6th around 10 a.m. only. Therefore the next morning we can linger in the town. The pleasant thing in arriving early December in Hobart is that it is the cherry and strawberry season. We go to the market place near the port in order to buy them and fill our bellies with them.

On Wednesday December 13th, after a few days of more or less rough sea, we encounter our first ice.

We pass along an ice floe where two crabeater seals are resting. These seals stay normally far from the coast near the edge of the ice pack, however it is possible to see some of them at the end of winter, on the sea ice, not too far from Dumont d'Urville base.

One of the two beacons we have to install on icebergs. Inside the blue container is the electronic system that enables to dialog with the satellite of the EOLE programme which will pick up its position. Inside the wooden box are the high capacity batteries, they are put into service filling them with water. The metallic tripod holds the antenna. Each beacon will be firmly anchored on top of an iceberg.

During the day of December 15th we go around looking for two large table icebergs, similar to the one on the photo, to install, with the help of the helicopter, each one of the beacons. A beacon of the same type, installed at the end of the last summer campaign, in March 1972, permitted  the satellite EOLE to pinpoint the iceberg positions during more than a year. The initial scope of this experiment was to study high altitude atmospheric currents, each beacon being carried by a long duration drifting balloon. The idea to put some of those beacons on top of icebergs permits a better knowledge of marine currents around the Antarctic. The most important part of the iceberg being situated beneath the ocean surface, its drifting is not affected by the winds, it depends only on the motion of the mass of water it is floating in.

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