Proof of Life

After waiting for days, weeks and a few false starts the call came through that the weather would behave and allow a flight to depart from our friends over at McMurdo. So what do we do when the forecasters ask for weather observations for the entire time of the flight and starting form a few hours before? Well, first we check time zones - McMurdo are on New Zealand time - and then we find out what time the first obs are needed (2.30am our time), then work out amongst the three of us who will go to the Skiway and report from there.

Michael was on the normal obs shift, but still started at 2.30am, Abrar was the slushy for the day, leaving me to go for an overnight stay with Ben M and to catch as much sleep as possible before work. And so, each hour I called in the current conditions to the forecasters in Hobart using a very dodgy satellite phone link and in between was reading a book about the history of the Melbourne Cup from 1861-1961. The most boring thing I've ever read.

The weather at our end seemed to be playing nice, until the fog came in, then dissipated and came in again and dissipated and came in and dissipated and came in and dissipated until we finally had a glorious day and perfect conditions for a plane to land.

Yes, that's right, we have the first people we've seen since February 19th on station and proof that there is life beyond the ice. We farewell two of our fellow winterers tomorrow and wait for the C-130 to arrive in a couple of weeks time.

Can you see them?

Safely on the ground

Taxiing

Stopping

People!!!

Photos

Here's some recent photos as nothing really interesting has happened down here. We're waiting for a plane to turn up in the next few days and bring some new people, but that's about it. 

Dr Chad and me wandering around the ice

If you look really, really carefully, you can see 3 seals that look like rocks.

One of the first Adelie penguins to return

Moonrise at the skiway.

When ice freezes really quickly, it gets all these bubbles.

Station

Mabel hut, all by its lonesome.

George the Adelie

Strike a pose!

Getting caught stealing rocks

Trying his best to hide

Damn photobomming seals!

Somewhere Deep in Partly Charted Territory

There's another weather station out in deep field, some 130km away from station. This AWS is in a beautiful location near the coast and simply being able to see a different part of the landscape is a truly wonderful experience. My workers for this trip were Scotty the Chef and Deputy Station Leader, Matty one of the mechanics and Doug the Senior Comms Tech. We're still trying to convince Doug to dance like this.

This trip was almost a month in the planning as we waited for various pieces of plant and accomodation to be available from other jobs that were on. We also had to delay for a week while there were a few blizzards in the area and even then the weather window was only just over a day. On Sunday, at about 6.30am, we left station for a drive of about 15 hrs (yes, with driver swaps) and we were lucky not to run into the weather station on arrival as there was no visibility and we were driving by GPS.

The work took just over a day to complete and in the end wasn't overly difficult, simply time consuming. The first job was to check the data and make sure all was within calibration, then the mast had to be raised and guy wires anchored into the snow. All went pretty smoothly until we lost light for the day.

Scott's birthday was on the Monday, so there were some eye fillets for those that wanted them and a phenomenal display from the sky: No clouds, not a breath of wind, stars everywhere and we even turned off the generator to soak in the atmosphere. Truly breathtaking.

Then next morning we quickly finished off the guy wires, went for a quick drive, then back to station as of lunchtime. A real Antarctic experience for all involved.

Doug

Scotty

Matt the Viking

The Challenger by night. Pity none of my other night photos turned out.

Being Talked At By My Computer

I've been watching TED talks for a few months now, the first being this link (sent by mum) of a talk by a professor of law and Australian Supreme Court judge who happens to be blind. Soon afterwards the station doc started monthly mini TED conventions where he would download some videos from the main website, put a few nibbles out and play them in the cinema.

It didn't take long and I was watching a few videos per day on whatever topic seemed vaguely interesting. The only problem with these talks is that if you disagree with the person or want more of an explaination or discussion, you can't because it's a speech and it's kinda difficult to have a conversation with someone who's back in time and presenting to an audiance all while being inside this tiny box on your monitor.

Since then. a few of us have put up our own set of talks we found interesting. Some of the talks inspired vigourous debate, others didn't inspire any conversation at all. Some were met with laughter and others with derision. In the end all we were really looking for is a way to keep people's minds ticking over and not turning to mush.

Anyway, here are a few of my favourites from these fascinating talks:

• Susan Cain: The power of introverts
• Paul Stamets: 6 ways mushrooms can save the world
• Jackson Katz: Violence against women
• Assil Russel: I CARE
• Aimee Mullins: The opportunity of Adversity
• Alyssa Royse: Ask & Tell
• Bruce Muzik on BIG secrets
• Dan Pink: The puzzle of motivation
• Jake the uke artist 
• Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice
• Jacob Barnett. A very intelligent teenager.
• Reggie Watts
• Charlie Todd: Play!

Some are inspirational, some will get you thinking, some are confusing and others will challenge you. And then there's this description of attending a TED conference. Enjoy!

Leopard Seal!!!

Leopard seal!!! Leopard seal!!! Ok ok, so as you can tell I'm excited about a leopard seal. Why? Well, after 12 months on Macquarie Island where a number of my fellow expeditioners got to see them, but I missed out simply by being somewhere else on the island, I finally saw one in its habitat. They are beautiful looking animals, even for a predator. He looked fairly fit and healthy, though seemed to have a little bit of a moult going on.

I went walking out on the sea ice this afternoon with Matt to check out this blob of a seal we could see from station and lo and behold, there he was, a 2 - 2.5m leopard seal. As we approached we cautiously kept our distance as they are near the top of the food chain around here, probably second only to orca, to be blunt. They can grow to around 3.5 - 4m, so this guy probaly still has a little more work to do. This guy happened to get a little curious about the two things nearby, so he made his way towards us to check us out, but we kept our distance. No point ending up as food.

One of the more intriguing things was the sounds this guy was making. He had some growls and snorts for us, as seals tend to do, but there were also these chirps and whistles that sounded very similar to a penguin's call....

Look at his flip-top head and sharp teeth.

Hopefully I'm lucky enough to get some photos of one while it's in the water and maybe even feeding. Hopefully I'm farenough away not to be considered food.... Actually, seeing a breeding area would be fascinating too.

Reader Demographics

Hello people out there in the world! Thanks for taking the time to read my drivel, I appreciate the readership very muchly.

Blogspot have been kind enough to offer the ability to track where hits to the site come from and I thought I'd share some of the places around the world that have been reading this thing recently:

How is Australia not at the top of the list?

So as you can see there's a fairly diverse selection of countries from just about every continent, although I'm not sure if I've quite cracked the African market. Maybe stories from a frozen land are so far removed from the imagination? Anyway, there are few countries that aren't shown in green on this map that have, recently, been visiting this page, including: Russia, Canada, New Zealand, UK and France.

The above picture is from a few months ago, sometime around the middle of May. Following are the listings of this week, month and since the dawn of time.

This week. Hello Asian friends!

The past month.

Since the beginning. Hello to all those Rusiian supermodels reading this page (don't destroy my illusion, please)

It's pretty cool that there are people all over the world willing to read the inanity I put up here. As long as you're all somewhat entertained, job done.

Ze Plane! Ze Plane!

Sunday saw us turn the clocks back to our childhood when toys and friendly competition were rife. The toys of the day were these rubber band powered balsa wood planes, known in Antarctic circles as "Hangar Rats", that we spent the afternoon throwing around the wallow.

A number people went to special effort to decorate or modify their planes in some wonderful attempts to win the prestigious design award. There was replica Israeli insignia, a Red Baron, the Green Hornet and the official station airline, however the winner was the triplane by Mark J.

Triplane

The first flights were cheered well, but there were some early problems as planes crashed into walls and rubber bands broke. The first casualty only took two flights. Chad's plane lots its wings on about the third flight and he spent the rest of the time launching it like a missile at the other planes. After about an hour of flying the planes and everyone getting tired from walking up and down the stairs, Mike decided to try and shoot down the competition. In the end, despite a few disintegrations, the most spectacular crash was awarded to Allan for his especially destructive wall-sled-stairs-floor flight.

Green Hornet with what look like fried eggs

The Triplane crashes

Getting the plane out of a ski

The Israeli plane gets stuck

Official station airlines

Jeremy and his double wing creation

Someone's cheating

The aftermath of destruction

Sadly, the Green Hornet didn't survive as the sheer power from the rubber band tore the fuselage apart. The Triplane and Ninja airlines survived.

Red Baron is hiding away, ready to pounce

We tried one outside and even then these planes don't land well