by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer
Work day 1 – Wednesday 18 October 2012
Breakfast was served at 6am, as planned, on our first full day on Andros – Wednesday 18 October 2012. My room-mate (Kristen Mann – take a look at Kristen’s Q&A to find out more about her) and I agreed on the tactic of setting an alarm for 6.20am (for those extra minutes of precious sleep), and heading down with our gear, ready to get straight into the van. We packed the gear we’d need the night before, so we just had to grab it and go.
But the first day, things took a little longer than we expected as we weren’t yet in the groove of preparing ourselves for departure. We each have slightly different things we have to carry. We all have at least a pack, and we were each given a 2-litre plastic bottle of water to take with us. That seemed like a lot to me. We’d been told to bring our own water bottles, and I’d bought a 1-litre water bottle, thinking that would be enough. Little did I know then how hard we would work physically, and how we would each easily get through 2 litres of water – and more! Most of us carry extra clothes – long-sleeved shirt, wind/rainproof jacket, scarf, hat (with elastic strap so it doesn’t blow off in the legendary Zagora wind), goggles (against dust storms), tough work/gardening gloves. Some also carry our food and extra water.
![The team preparing for the first walk down to Zagora The team preparing for the first walk down to Zagora](https://zagoraarchaeologicalproject.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/14/files/2012/10/team_parked_preparing_for_first_day_IMG_0010.jpg)
So, the first day, we departed at 7.25am – a bit later than our scheduled 7am departure.