www.thegilmours.co.uk

I’m writing this in the hope that one day it will reach the world, or at least the world-wide-web. By “one day” I mean tomorrow, as things should be fixed by then. On the other hand you could find this message in 5 years time, after a search party turns up my remains in the middle of the desert. You see, at the moment Paranal is semi-dead, and could be gone by the morning (ever the pessimist). The generators are dying and we have just enough power to control the telescopes, which of course take priority over humans. Apart from the control building the site is lit by eerie emergency lighting, with just enough power in each light to guide you through the blackspots without serious injury. The dining hall is full of candles and the rooms are pitch black. I have turned off my torch to preserve power and am very glad that I can touch type. All communication with the outside world from here is dead - phones, internet, satellite link.

It’s just hit me that Paranal is very remote. At 1 1/2 hours drive from the nearest settlement, and with no water pipes, electricity cables or any other link to the world, we could disapear in a puff of smoke and no-one would notice for days. The only lights on the horizon come from a distant mine, and they probably wouldn’t care if we evaporated - astronomers and miners don’t see eye-too-eye; they look down and we look up.

Normally on Paranal I feel like I’m just stuck in the office for 10 days - I can phone Doug, e-mail and browse the web just like in Santiago, and I don’t feel like I’m too far from home. Now I’m stuck in a dark building, with only engineers and astronomers to talk to. There are no options for procrastination or for work, the pool is too dangerous, the keyboard needs power, dinner will have to be raw, and I’ve got a cold and am feeling grumpy! So, I’m going to save and sign off before my laptop batteries die, and wish you all a good night.
I’m off to read my bible under an emergency lamp in the corridor!

This entry was posted on Friday, June 29th, 2007 at 10:47 pm and is filed under Rachel's blog 07, Voices from the other side - Chile 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.