It typically takes about two weeks to reach the Antarctic research station on a freezing clifftop some 2,500 miles from the southernmost tip of Africa. When the weather allows.
One group of scientists dispatched to the frozen continent to study its climate are now utterly alone for at least ten more months, as ice floes and extreme weather make getting in or out impossible.
Given their isolation, the email that arrived from the Sanae IV base last week caused immediate alarm.
