The sun's long gone

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.

They've abandoned us

Hmm... yes, well it seems I'm getting worse at keeping this thing updated.  It's not as if I'm short of time down here, so there's really no excuse.  So what's happened since my last blog?  Well a fair bit really, I wont try and bore you with all of the details, but the most significant thing to occur is V4 (the last voyage of the season) arriving and then leaving again a few days later.  This was significant because it would be the last ship we'd see for an entire 8 months and also when it finally left, it reduced station numbers from 90 odd down to 25.  So our winter experience had finally begun.

Seeing the ship power off over the horizon was a really strange feeling.  I didn't react how I thought I would.  I had been anticipating a feeling of dread or panic as my last contact with the world outside sailed away for 8 months, but instead I was hit by excitement and a realisation that something very few people get to do had just started.  It was a very cool moment.  The dread set in much later.

So what have I been doing since then?  Well I spent the best part of a day opening all of my post and care packages that arrived on V4.  Unfortunately the coffee machine that I bought didn't travel too well and appears to have experienced the espresso form of sea sickness (i.e. getting smashed by something big and heavy in the cargo hold of the AA).  Of course I was a little upset to find something that is worth more than my car, reduced to scrap metal.  At least the 8 kg of freshly roasted coffee beans made it safely.  Thanks to mum and dad and Island Espresso for that one.

As we are actually experiencing nights now, we are also treated to the Aurora Australis on most clear nights (the green light thingy, not the ship).  Although we now have to put up with some slightly colder temperatures to view it.  The mercury is now regularly tipping minus 20 degrees.  Whilst we were unpacking one of the outside food freezers today it actually occurred to me that it was warmer inside the freezer than it was outside.  Shut the door, you're letting all the hot air out!

Jollies, SAR training and medivacs

It is surprising how much actually happens when you look back over a few weeks in your life.  At first I really didn't think there was a great deal to talk about, but there turns out to be one or two interesting things that have popped up over the last month.  A little drama that we had down in this part of the world recently was the medical evacuation of a Chinese expeditioner from the Chinese base Zhong Shan.  The expeditioner didn't come off so well after his abdomen met with an excavator bucket.  This resulted in some major surgery, a helicopter flight to the Davis region, a plane ride in a CASA to the Wilkins runway at Casey and finally a flight on the Airbus from Wilkins to Hobart.  Thankfully, after further emergency surgery in Hobart, the patient is making a steady recovery.  As I am one of the lay surgical assistance here at Davis, I was flown up to the skiway to lend a hand if necessary, in the patients transport from helicopter to plane.  There turned out to be more than enough help however.

Australia Day was also a rather eventful day, with lots of semi-naked swimming, barbecues and beach cricket.  The weather wasn't exactly conducive to swimming though, as the water temperature hovered around -1.8 deg C, with similar air temperatures.  So needless to say, I didn't last that long clad only in my mankini.  The nightmares and counselling will though, for those that were unlucky enough to see me.

And more recently the SAR (Search and Rescue) team had their first full day of training.  This involved doing cool stuff like flying in helicopters, hanging from ropes and doing some basic mountaineering techniques.  It was probably one of the more interesting days I've had since being here and is why I wanted to come down here in the first place.  The day was spent in one of the more spectacular parts of the Vestfolds and was accompanied by some beautiful weather, which consequently, has started to become cooler and more Antarctic-like in the past couple of weeks.  We now have darkness at night and we all find ourselves looking forward to a clear evening sky so that the Aurora Australis can finally be viewed.