Problems with Technology Remain

They’re really sorry about that as they hoped to send at least few pictures and a video today. We have to hope that the technology won’t let them down completely now when they have only 2 more days to go! They managed to fix the solar panels today’s morning so they had 3 fully charged batteries in the evening and hoped that everything go smoothly. Well, it didn’t. It was the computer which didn’t work well today. Bad news is that the guys are afraid that this might be a more serious problem than the broken cable. At first it seemed to be working properly so the tried to send the coordinates and few pictures. Bummer they didn’t make it... The satellite modem has suddenly disconnected itself and remained so. Pavel thinks that the humidity and low temperatures took out the USB port which probably shorted out. They tried connecting the laptop and modem via the Bluetooth but the connection was too unstable to even send an email. It’s rather a serious problem as they’re not able to connect not only the modem but camera and camcorder as well. They said they hoped it would be OK by tomorrow but they didn’t seem to really believe what they said.

Fortunately, they have credit of more than 400 minutes on their satellite phone. They might not be to send any more pictures while they’re on the ice but we’ll at least know what’s going on with them. They sounded tired and a bit annoyed because of the laptop but otherwise they said they were very happy about the distance they covered today.

They said they had a beautiful again and the terrain was about the same as yesterday - ice covered with snow so they skied most of today’s distance. The weather has been fine for the past few days, the only thing that has been bothering them are the big swings in temperature. As they said yesterday, the nights had been very cold and mornings as well. However, they said it was almost warm during the day today. The guys feel good - Vasek’s leg and Pavel’s feet are doing much better and the only thing that bothers the guy is the fact that they’re very tired. They can do nothing but grit their teeth and keep on walking. Pavel said that they feel worst in the morning when they have to force themselves to start moving. They don’t do as many breaks as they used to do during the day as they said that it’s easier to keep going. They stop only to have a quick snack. They walked along the shore all day, their eyes fixed on the mountains around the Nizhneangarsk village to which they’re getting closer every day.

Also, they were... beep beep beep... the connection broke... I don’t know the rest of the story either. The connection had broken several times before so I suppose they’re in a spot with a week signal. We can only guess what else they wanted to tell us. They probably were not able to call back again. Or maybe didn’t try as they have to save the energy - the technology is getting worse by every day so they don’t know what they’ll have to deal with the next day. It was a good idea that they told me everything important right at the beginning!

First, they shouted the coordinates at me and than asked me to tell you how sorry they were about the technical problems and that they hope you’ll stay with them till the end! They also want to thank to Viktor Okunev from Rossia Airlines for his indispensable help with their plane tickets. They also want to thank to all their media partners (Czech News Agency, Adrex.cz, radio BEAT, Explorersweb.com) who inform about the expedition. They hope they didn’t forget someone and if they did they’re sorry. They want to thank to all who write about the expedition, talk about it... spread the word about it!

Guys, we all think of you and wish you the best weather possible for tomorrow! You’re almost there!!!!

Zuzka