Tagged: antarctica

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Summer Solstice Party & Name-Our-Rap-Group Competition!!!

To celebrate the summer solstice – that is, the longest day and shortest night (not that it makes any difference here as the sun never sets) – we all got dressed up in our best summer casuals and had a feast! The exotic Cape Denison Burgers whipped up by our Gordon Blue Conseurvatrix Mad...

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Jubilee Base Extensions!

Our intrepid builder-architects, Pete McCabe and Jon Tucker, have wrestled with the Beast (the Cobra Rock Drill) and, with amazing rapidity, built the infrastructure for the new Base base – or the Base base extension. The verandah and access to Delaney’s Dunny disappeared for a while, but was resumed by...

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“Spirit of Enderby” visits Mawson’s Huts

Today we had a delightful visit from the Spirit of Enderby – a ship chartered by the New Zealand company Heritage Expeditions, carrying some 60 passengers and crew, who met 8 keen-for-a-shower Mawson’s Huts teamers. Needless to say, we had a great time – showing our guests around the Huts...

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Inside Mawson’s Huts

With my heart in my throat, I stepped inside Mawson’s Hut today – the odour of damp wood and time in one’s breath, a strange expansion of space as the interior seemed so large compared with the outside of the structure, subdued light, and the stillness of the place, a...

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Day 2 Thoughts & Opening the Hut (almost)

There’s so much to describe here – it is the most amazingly beautiful place. A few kilometers of bare mid-grey gneissic rock jutting out to sea, rising to a few low hills of shattered stone, swathed in snow and bands of blue ice, some frozen lakes of pure fresh water...

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Rough Seas in the Furious Fifties

Here’s a panorama I shot from the deck above the helipad, the evening before last. The seas were rising and picked up to a 5-6 metre swell – meaning a very uncomfortable night not sleeping as I was tossed around in my bunk. This shot gives an idea – it’s...

First Day on the High Seas 0

First Day on the High Seas

The day has been bright blue and warm in the sun, as L’Astrolabe passed 47º21S 146º21E (according to my new GPS unit), but starting to get chilly as the evening sets in. I spent much of today lying in my bunk recovering from a dose of avomil – anti-seasickness medication...

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Voyage of the Vasiliy Golovnin Ep.5

Episode 5. January 22 2006. 10th day at sea. The Vasiliy Golovnin is almost brought to a standstill in the pack ice – which extends in all directions – the most magnificent vista. Penguins, a Leopard Seal, a Wandering Albatross, a romantic sunset. New friendships. Next day we arrive at...

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Voyage of the Vasiliy Golovnin Ep.4

Episode 4. January 21 2006. 9th day en route to Casey Station, across the Southern Ocean. The sea calmed more and more, and sleet began to fall, until an eerie stillness settled upon the ocean – and finally upon the horizon – the First Iceberg. A truly thrilling moment. After...

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Voyage of the Vasiliy Golovnin Ep.2 (2006)

Episode 2. January 13-15 2006. The Southern Ocean en route to Casey Station. This was my first ever experience of the deep ocean – where what at first-hand seemed like a huge ship became a tiny microcosm afloat upon the plumbless depths. A genuinely existential experience that brought home to...