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The End

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THE END   So that's it! Adventure done, box ticked... goin' home to see what happens next. Even though you know it's coming and have been waiting for it with excitement, it's still a weird feeling to leave Mawson Station after all this time and be heading back to reality.. well a different reality anyway. A year away is a very long time, even though on the day I woke up knowing we would be leaving, I wondered where the year had actually gone.     The Nuyina arrived mid January to find a lot of ice still in Kista Strait and Horseshoe Harbour immediately in front of Mawson Station. So basically for the first week the Nuyina "drove" up and down the "street" trying to crunch up the at times 1 metre thick ice so it would all blow away the next time we got a decent bit of wind coming off the Ice Plateau. Every morning almost without exception we get Katabatic Winds from the South which would be perfect to push the ice out to sea. The problem was they were ...
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The Beginning of the End

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    So, here we are. Beginning the middle year of the 2020s and about to end our stay in Antarctica. About now is the time when people often say " the year went so fast!" but when I think about when it was that I was last at home it is very difficult to picture so I am thinking it hasn't really gone that fast. What is for sure however is that the end is approaching very quickly. The RSV Nuyina is due to arrive here at Mawson Station on 21st January which is only 13 days away.. yes we are all counting in days now! In the drawer where I keep my shoeboxes that Leanne sent down for me to open at the start of every month, there remains only one box for February.     I have packed up all my UPE ( Unaccompanied Personal Effects ) and taken them over to the Green Store ( Warehouse ) and they have been tucked into the Sea Container ready for loading onto the ship. This is a bit of a bummer because it means I don't have access to lots of hobby things that have kept me amused i...
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What keeps us going..

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  It has occurred to me recently that all of things that I have seen, the work I have done and all the leisure time we have enjoyed is only because we are not dead. Now that's a weird thing to say I know and kind of obvious but as I have said several times about living here in Antarctica, its a beautiful place but it will kill you dead very quickly if you don't watch what you are doing. And the biggest reason we aren't dead is because we have this wonderful Station to live and work in. So I thought I would spend some time sharing about what it is that keeps us not dead down here on Station.     So what we need to be alive is shelter, heat, water, food and it's also nice to have things to do so you don't go insane and become the Antarctic Axe murderer. So probably the thing that we dread most would be a power failure.. namely the Main Power House (MPH) stopping its wonderful chugging away. Whilst it is very pleasant to get off Station and go out to the white wilderne...
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So you want to drive a Hagg...

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       Probably nothing on an Australian Antarctic Station is as iconic to an expeditioner as a "Hagg" or a Hagglunds tracked vehicle. They are the workhorse, the gateway to adventure and the shelter when you have had enough of the harsh environment down here. So what do you have to do to take one for a spin? Is it as simple as someone throwing you the keys and going for a drive down the street? Well, yes and no. As with all things Antarctic, there are a few things we have to do that are not exactly like jumping in the car and heading off for the day at home.   Above: The Hagg.. noisy, sometimes uncomfortable but the perfect tool for the job in Antarctica                    First ( assuming you have done your day long induction and training ) you wander down to                the "Line" where the Haggs are all tethered or parked. I say tethered because they kind o...
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