Well okay, there have been a few firsts since I last posted something up here. We've had our first "official" blizzard, I've had my first birthday in Antarctica, we also had our first game of golf and for the first time we said goodbye to the sun for the last time in 38 days! So with the exception of darkness, what else has been consuming our days down here? It just so happens that June is a rather busy month for us Davisonians. For one, mid-winters day is coming up on Monday and a week after that 12 of us are due to leave for the Larsemann Hills on a 800 km traverse for a couple of weeks.
Mid-winters is the biggest day of the year for wintering Antarctic expeditioners and it is something that has been heavily celebrated ever since the first Belgian wintering Antarctic expedition in 1897. Unfortunately for them they inadvertently spent their winter trapped in the seaice on board their ship the
Belgica and two of the ship's crew consequently went mad!
As I've been flicking through the numerous accounts of Antarctic literature in the library shelves down here, I've stumbled across a few accounts from that particular voyage. The ships doctor, Frederick Cook, wrote in his diary at the time:
"The curtain of blackness which has fallen over the outer world of icy desolation has also descended upon the inner world of our souls"
"I can think of nothing more disheartening, more destructive to human energy, than this dense, unbroken blackness of the long polar night"
Happy days all round there! I'm glad to say that none of us (to my knowledge) have slipped into any such depression or fits of madness, but I have noticed in myself an even greater reluctance to get out of bed in the mornings. Even though the sun only left us a couple of weeks ago I have realised that it has been much longer since we have actually felt any benefit from it. In recent months the sun has stayed so low on the horizon that what rays had hit us had been too feeble to be of any real benefit. But I am still looking forward to the 10th of July when the sun will once more poke its head above the horizon. Until then, small stints in the hydroponics shed will have to suffice. Below is a photo taken from the plateau of the last time we saw of the sun.
So in between preparations for mid-winters, 12 of us are busy preparing for the traverse at the end of the month. This has involved various forms of training such as ice arrest techniques, glacial travel techniques, camping in polar pyramids (in rather ordinary conditions, see photos below) and search and rescue skills. There is also a mountain of gear that needs to be prepared too. The diesos have been busy readying the three
Hägglund vehicles while sleds, trailers, tents, warm sleeping gear and food must also be prepared. And the purpose of all of this? Well our aim is to make it to the remote Emperor penguin colony of Amanda Bay to carry out a photographic census of the male birds. We have to visit the colony at this particularly dark time of year as it is the only time when there will be no female birds around. Females tend to complicate issues and make simple things difficult (female birds that is). Whilst we're in the area we'll also call in and say hello to both the Russian and Chinese wintering parties at Zhong Shan and Progress. Should be interesting!
Hope everyone is all well back in civilisation. Take care, will be in touch again shortly.
