The post-fieldwork blues

by Eva Doting  

 

While we were enjoying our best meal in weeks served by NiNu's in Qaqortoq, Greenland, on our last evening with the complete fieldwork team, the wise Martyn Tranter warned us about the post-fieldwork blues. We had just come back from almost three weeks on the ice and were feeling all kinds of exhausted and grateful as well as a little confused about returning to a world where COVID-19 was still very much a reality. Somehow, I had been expecting that the world would have returned to normal and sensible while we'd been off the grid, and it was a bit of a disappointment to find out the opposite was true..

Beers and big smiles after a successful expedition, several showers and amazing food at NiNu's. 

Now, almost 2.5 months after returning home from the first DEEP PURPLE expedition, I can safely say that, at least in my case, Martyn's warning was definitely warranted. As per his advice, I scheduled in some rest; five days to visit my parents in the Netherlands. Lesson learned: I need more than five days to rest, get rid of all the tight knots in my body from changing-clothes-in-a-tent-manoeuvres and carrying odd-sized items across an ice sheet or heli-pad and to come up with a post-fieldwork game plan. Once back in the lab, I got back to work on a whole bunch of samples that needed my attention, both from 2020 fieldwork but also things that I had abandoned when we rushed into the first COVID-19 lockdown back in March. While I really love my PhD research and my colleagues, my head was still somewhere between Greenland and the lab. I feel a little bad about the number of times I told my supervisor Alex: "I really want to do this, but I just DON'T want to do it right now...!!!" After spending crazy hours preparing for fieldwork during a pandemic, not knowing if we'd be able to go, COVID tests, traveling with masks on, an incredible sense of relief once we landed and days on the ice filled with science, fresh air and focussing on staying warm and fed, it was overwhelming to have a constant stream of news and indoor work again. 

It took a while, but I am finally back in the swing of things: I have exciting samples to analyse, intimidating data to process, planning of new lab work to look forward to and amazing colleagues to discuss data and science with. Lots more fun to come!

How to prepare for fieldwork during a pandemic

by Eva Doting

On Monday May 11, the Aarhus University cryo-bio group held its first physical meeting since the lockdown in Denmark was announced two months prior. We met up in a park, discussed some science and ate some cookies while fending off some overly eager ducks that seemed more interested in our cookies than our science. It was here that Alex mentioned that it was really starting to look like we might be able to get to Greenland for a very reduced version of our original fieldwork plans. Two days later, during one of the regular Deep Purple Team Zoom meetings, it was decided that we would start ordering, planning, packing and shipping as if it was certain that we'd be heading to the ice. 

Despite everyone's intentions to keep ambitions low, they quickly spiralled from planning a 4-person grab-and-go expedition into planning a full on 7-person-three-week-long ice camp. Scientific imaginations ran wild, orders for scientific equipment, chemicals, camping gear, food provisions, down pants, jackets and boots were being placed at record speed and packages quickly started pilling up in our offices.

With our postdoc Laura Perini still stuck in Italy due to an impressive number of COVID-related flight cancellations and while navigating the social distancing and limited attendance rules at our department, we started filling box after box, after box, after box... Over the span of a short week, we packed scientific, food and camp supplies onto 5 pallets weighing an impressive total of 1215 kg. A couple of 16+ hour work (and weekend) days and several paperwork nightmares later, the major share of our gear was wrapped up and ready for its first leg of travel: by truck to the port in Aalborg, Denmark. From there, it will make a two-week journey over sea to Nuuk, where it will be loaded onto a second ship that will sail it to Qaqortoq. Once in Qaqortoq, it will be picked up for transport to the ice by helicopter sling load. It will be there, on the Greenland Ice Sheet near PROMICE weather station QAS_M (https://www.promice.dk/CurrentWeatherMap.html), that we hope to be reunited with our gear. 

With load one on its way, we went home to catch up on some sleep before heading back to pack a sixth pallet with stuff that had not arrived before the first departure. On Tuesday June 9, a little less than one month after the decision to start ordering, planning and packing, this final pallet was picked up to follow in the footsteps of the first 1215 kg. It is expected to arrive in Qaqortoq around the same time that we hope to be landing in Narsarsuaq, on June 30, armed with negative COVID-19 tests, a bunch of warm clothes, some scientific equipment that we were not able to ship, high spirits and even higher ambitions. Until then, we will be working on finalising sampling protocols and field logistics while anxiously watching the status of our flights and expected delivery dates of the equipment that has not arrived yet. Fingers crossed!!