The fossil guardians

The sound of the helicopter is earsplitting and the rotor wind is so strong that the only thing you can do is crouch over the luggage and try to prevent it from flying away. Away like the helicopter. Once it has left the silence is overwhelm­ing. I look at my field partner. Now it is only her, the sedimentologist, and me, the palaeontologist, for the next five weeks, alone in the wilderness of northern Greenland, the first two women ever to set up a camp here. We have a hammer and a .44 Magnum each, and a rifle to share.