Well, the last few weeks has really all been about our mid-winters celebration and related activities. For the days leading up to June 21st we were making plans for what we were doing, where it was happening and who was was doing what to organise it. Official mid-winters day here seems a bit weird because winter has still got a couple of months to run in Australia .. mostly it has to do with the day with the least amount of daylight. The 20 of us in Station were organised into three teams with different responsibilities revolving around three meals or parts thereof.
On Mid-winters Day we arose and at 8AM attended an on-line meeting/mid winter celebration with the Head office of the Australian Antarctic Division in Hobart and the three other Antarctic/Sub-Antarctic Stations of Casey, Davis and Macquarie Island. Like most of these online meetings, there was a fair bit of yawning and wondering how they could possibly make them more boring than the last online meeting we had but somehow they manage to achieve this yet again. Anyway, we survived and then moved onto the real business of the day which involved lots of food, drink and general merriment and frivolity.
First was lunch in the historic Biscoe Hut which is an original building from the establishment of Mawson Station in 1954. Our theme here was the past so we replicated the menu from a 1911 Mid-winters celebration but had to change out the original penguin and seal meat for beef and chicken. The hut looked the best of all the locations of the day ( yes I was in fact part of the team setting up Biscoe Hut if you were wondering ) and below is the photo of us all to prove it.. in historic black and white.
Then it was time for a little digestion and reflection ( read nap time really ) before we all dolled up for our formal photos and our evening meal. Thanks to the Sale RSL Pipe Band, who generously allowed me to bring my band uniform to Antarctica, I was by far the best dressed Expeditioner at our gathering in my humble if not unbiased opinion. I will not bother to show you any other expeditioners outfit for fear of embarrassing them, just in case you were wondering what they were wearing for a scientific comparison.
After this came the Mid-winters gift giving. For the past few months we have all been furiously working away to create a gift for another expeditioner here at Mawson. Our gift recipient was drawn out of a hat and known only to ourselves or someone else that we may have enlisted to help us in said creation. So there was a lot of interest in what was received by all and who it was that may have created it.
Then came our formal dinner which was fantastic.. our Chef Justin doing a magnificent job with multiple dishes including Kangaroo, Crocodile, and Quail with Sorbets made from Antarctic Plateau ice in between dishes. Dessert followed with a multitude of sweet things to choose from. After Dinner there came the prestige of the Mawson Station Mid-winter awards. Gongs were handed out for eagerly sought after prizes including "Expeditioner with the Biggest Brain", " Most Patient Man on Station" and of course the award of all awards, the "Mawson Station Best Window Licker".
Despite my outstanding attire I could not manage to complete a perfect day and bring home the Best Window Licker prize. Furthermore, I cannot reveal the names of the winners of the prizes or the real meanings as I would have to change all names to protect both the innocent and not so innocent.
Once this was all over it was time to let our hair down a little and our band , which was not really a band at all until we finally gave into the inevitable and agreed to play at Mid-winters a month ago, got up to entertain all those who weren't a member of the band. Whilst it may not have been our best performance, due to the performance reducing food and beverages we may have consumed over the course of the day, it was certainly a lot of fun. Once again, thanks to the Sale RSL Pipe Band, I was also the best dressed member of our Mawson Band which, after much debate, weeping and gnashing of teeth was introduced as ... Sophie and the Degenerates!
After such a big event we all collapsed for the next few days before cleaning up our mess. Due to the bad weather before and immediately after Mid-winters day the famous and unbelievably ridiculous Mid-winter swim in the freezing Southern Ocean had to be delayed a few days to allow the blizzard engulfing the station to abate. So how do you swim in the ocean when it is all frozen solid with ice well over a metre deep I hear you say? Naturally you use all resources available to you to ensure something of such significance goes ahead. Please see the videos below to understand how it happens.
Step 1... Make a Pool.
Step 2.. Fill Pool with Sea Water
Step 3.. Erect Information and Safety Signs
Step 4.. Find People silly enough to get in..... oh, here's a whole heap of them.
In case you are wondering, there is a whole bunch of stuff that has to happen before you can jump into the refreshing and invigorating liquid... including signing forms that say yes I might die from a sudden cardiac arrest but hey what could possibly go wrong! Then before you get wet we attach a harness and rope to you so that if said cardiac arrest does arrive we can drag your cold and lifeless corpse from the swimming pool without getting cold and wet ourselves. Then you need to make sure you are wearing gloves and shoes so that when climbing in and out of the pool via the ladder your hands and feet don't freeze on the metal rungs and you become kind of stuck to the ladder... which is more difficult to extract you from than just being dead in the water.
I can also hear you wondering out loud... did you do the Midwinter Peter? Well, no, ... no I did not. I intend to go home with all my fingers, toes and other appendages well and truly attached and functional thank you very much and this seemed like a good way to not achieve that. Instead I assisted those brave souls who wished to torture themselves. Not necessarily surprisingly, all participants reported that the water was not that bad but the walk of 50 metres back to the wharf hut to get warm was a killer. Considering that the sea water temperature is about -2C and on the day of the swim the air temperature including wind chill was about -35C I am surprised no-one turned around and jumped back in the pool!
Midwinters does mean that the days here are as short of daylight as they will get. Basically the sun set two weeks ago and we haven't seen it directly in the sky until yesterday ( 27 June 2024 ). It is dark outside until about 1030 am and is dark again at about 3:15pm with twilight in between. Below is a photo of the daytime twilight near "Rosella", the Carpenters workshop. In the foreground is a picnic table made from part of the wing of a Russian aircraft which had landed not far from Mawson in 1964.
Unfortunately after it landed a blizzard arrived and proceeded to throw it all over the place and crunch it into not very airworthy pieces. Its' remains are still up on the ice plateau above Mawson Station today.
As mentioned the sun has risen again (see below photo ) much to our joy and this means that summer is now coming! All we have to do is wait for all the blizzards to go away and the temperatures to rise from the well below -20C ( with wind chill it's about -40 C ) temperatures we are consistently getting each day. Oh for the balmy days of -5C we had when we first arrived......
Below: First sunrise for two weeks!
As part of our science activities and travel preparations, each week we go out onto the sea ice and measure its thickness at pre-determined locations. I went out a few weeks ago for this and we headed east of the station about 15 kms , drilling and measuring the ice as we went. It is a very technical process involving.. a drill .. and ... a tape measure connected to a weight. Nevertheless it must be done or we may find ourselves having an unplanned dip in the cold ocean as we break through the ice that is too thin to support the weight of the Hagglunds tracked vehicle. The sea ice was remarkably smooth being relatively new and the twilight made the trip a memorable one.
Above Left: Smooth sea ice Above Right: Aladdins' Cave in the Ice plateau
Above: Drilling sea ice to check thickness.
Below: Ice cliff edge of the plateau
As the weather has been consistently colder and snowier, we notice all the things that only appear in the bad weather. Such as how the blizzard gets into things when all the doors are shut and you think it should be OK to leave it outside ( below ).
...or the Blizztails ( snow drifts ) that accumulate on the lee sides of the buildings during Blizzards.
The other thing that bad weather does is confine us to the Red Shed ( living quarters ) and that is when we start to look at things we would normally ignore. Such as , why is it that the pictures on a packet of Iced VoVo's always show them looking tall and fluffy yet the reality is much flatter, staler and more disappointing ( bottom left ) . Alternatively, you start looking for something to do to fill up your time whilst the blizzard howls and things like knitting become attractive... or at least thinking about knitting and making wool ball aliens before you actually get around to start any knitting....
Few are safe from such observations, especially when props such as toy penguins are within easy reach at dinner time (Below left) ...and why is it that the Chippies have so many bloody files? ( Below right ).
Well, I think that is about enough for this post. You may have guessed that with the length of this post there is in fact a Blizzard arriving today so I have some extra time to devote to this Blog. Hopefully my next post will include details of our first trip to the Auster Emperor penguin colony assuming the blizzard doesn't wreck all the sea ice between here and there first.
Moon setting behind the ANARESAT Dome.
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