As we narrowed in on the Antarctic continent, the ocean which had previously been a wild mess of swell and waves, was as calm as a lake and covered with a thick layer of broken up sea ice. Looking out the port hole was like looking out the window of an aeroplane skimming across the clouds. The sea ice gradually built up more and more creating a white landscape above the sea. The ship slowed to push its way through the sea ice as we made our way towards my exit point, Davis base. The Antarctic wildlife came out to welcome us with seals and penguins drifting by on sheets of ice putting on rehearsed performances for our viewing and photographing pleasure. The approach to Davis was slowed as we had to pass by an 80km long iceberg, which was drifting across our path.
I woke up on the morning of Wednesday the 20th of December to the sight of land. We made it to Antarctica. The ship was stopped in the seaice alongside Davis Station. From the ship I immediately boarded a ‘Squirrel’ helicopter on the helideck and flew to Plough Island about 3km away. We landed on the ice and carted our bags to a CASA aeroplane which then took off from the ski-way and flew across to the plateau above Mawson Station, in the Framnes Mountains. We then threw all our stuff into Hagglunds (a type of ice truck with treads rather than wheels) and drove down to Mawson Station. See what I mean about constant motion. Go go go. I was not all that phased by the excitement of the travel. I actually fell asleep on the flight from Davis to Mawson. There were only clouds to look at.
The rock formations, mountains, nunataks surrounding the Mawson landing strip are spectacular as is the landscape of ice rolling off in all directions. Mawson is an impressive station, named after Sir Douglas Mawson who was a famous Australian explorer in the Antarctic. He spent a lot of time in Antarctica and survived an extraordinary adventure in which two of three of his party died and he had to eat the husky dogs and possibly one of his mates. Let’s hope it doesn’t get to that for me. At the station the view is quite picturesque and the facilities are surprisingly well furnished and comfortable. There are about 30 people here, 18 will stay all year. The accommodation block reminds me of the hotel in The Shining or maybe it is just that these people are going to get couped up in here for the entire winter. All work and no play makes…
I can walk on water. That is, when there is a thick layer of sea ice. I walked from Mawson to Bechervaise Island the other day to help a technician with some equipment, locate some survey marks and visit the Adelie penguin colonies. Some of the penguins had just hatched some new chicks (a few days old) that were very cute. One of the Mama/Papa penguins sits around on the nest with the egg or chick while the other parent wanders off to the sea, which could be tens of kilometres away to get food for itself and the chick. Nice. The predator of the penguins is a bird known as a skewer. They nest within metres of the penguin colonies. I don’t know how the penguins get any sleep. Not many chicks make it. The ground around the colony is scattered with the remains of chicks. Not so nice. We dragged a sled over to the island (you barely notice it as it slides across the ice) and tried to avoid the tide cracks and patches where the sea ice had melted around seaweed (anything other than ice gradually melts into the ice as it absorbs the sun light and heats up more than the ice). It was great to get some real exercise after being stuck on a floating piece of metal for nearly two weeks.
I have started work and undertaken a GPS survey of a tide gauge they have here. The tricky part is that the tide gauge is under the sea ice. To access the water beneath the ice we had to drill a deep hole (nearly 2m down). I then setup a GPS over the water in the hole (above the tide gauge) and another GPS over a point with a known height on the land. From these observations we can determine the height of the water level during the survey and compare these results with the tide gauge observations of water level. This is part of a tide gauge calibration. Unfortunately, my survey equipment did not fly to Mawson with me. Thus, I haven't started my important work here yet. I have small odd jobs to keep me occupied and preparation I am doing but I mostly have to hurry up and wait as the saying goes.
I am at Mawson for a couple of weeks. I will spend Christmas and New Years here with a group of complete strangers. Strange strangers. These people have been here a month already, need I say more. I hope everyone has a great Christmas/New Year time and I look forward to seeing you in the in 2007. I’ll hold back a few stories to tell in person.
