Alfred Wegener: Difference between revisions

When they finally dumped enough ballast to rise above the overcast layer, the vista was stunning : a sea of white clouds with dark plumes convecting rapidly upward. They could hear thunder from every direction. Eventually, a huge thunderhead, black as iron, built up near them.

 

 

The balloon descended into the cloud layer. Soaked with water once again, they began to fall rapidly. Gerdien jettisoned two sacks of ballast, but this did not entirely control the descent. The winds near the surface were brisk, about 15 meters per second. The ballon was moving very fast across the plain below. They knew they were in for a rough landing, as the means of stopping the balloon consisted entirely in tossing the anchor overboard and waiting for it to catch something and jerk the balloon basket to a halt.

Alfred got unsteadily to his feet and went looking for his boot. He was delighted to find both it and Gerdien, who had a worse landing. Gerdien had hit his knee very hard and wrenched his left shoulder. Searching the area around, Alfred managed to find his house keys and eventually his hat as well.

 

 

It took three days to get out of Poland. They packed up the balloon after their sleepless night in the school building and it was dark before they set out under escort for the nearest Russian military outpost. The road was terrible. Their cart driver, unable to see anything in the gloom, hit a deep rut and pitched them into a roadside pond. Drenched, muddy and sore, they eventually found their instruments and their day packs in the deepest part of the pond.