"DUIDELIK!!"

A good friend of mine (5 years old) described the scenery in Antarctica as "DUIDELIK!", Afrikaans for "Clear".  (Thanks for the feedback Charl, I hope you don't mind me using that as the title of this post.)


As the sun has just crept over the horizon the last few days (with the approaching winter); and since our weatherman insists, despite the current 43 knot winds, there is a storm starting tomorrow; I think the sun has set.  By that I mean we entered our winters' night of nearly 2 months and I hope to see the sun again only in July.  


As children of Africa I am sure the absence of our beloved sun will render some psychological challenges.  


On the bright side we are not ancient Egyptians who may have interpreted the sun's absence as the need for human sacrifice or the like.  I wonder who we would have chosen...just imagine the pressure for social acceptance in those times.  


Duidelik.

Photos

Check my pages for "Photos II" for some newly added photos.


We will have our last sunset this summer within the next day or two so everyone is running around to get the last rays of sunlight on film.

Diet

One of the aspects of everyday life that is severely impacted by a year of isolation is your diet.  With the absence of shops, a quick run to the supermarket cannot replenish your salads or fruits or veggies or address your growing craving for roast whole chicken not even your achilles' heel for the occasional half-poisonous junk food like the old Big Mac or McFlurry or the KFC drumstick or your favourite local take away pizza or the famous flame grilled burger with oily fries or your favourite flat white outlet with those bargain mini breakfasts.....I am getting distracted here.....I did want to make a point....oh yea....


Despite the negatives of not having every imaginable source of food within 20 minutes drive from where you are; we, at present, have our stock of food, although limited, within 1 minute's walk from where we are.  Seeing that many health experts advise having small yet frequent meals rather than infrequent binge sessions;  it is not impractical for us to live healthily by having small meals with every breakfast, lunch, dinner and both teatimes.  One of my fellow overwinterers is also quite knowledgable on exercise and healthy diets and he describes your metabolism as an extra invisible muscle.  In other words keeping your metabolism healthy (by for example eating less more frequently) will increase your daily calorie consumption and will have many positive effects like excess weight loss, more energy, better general well being, you might even want to start to gym.


This post might sound like your run-off-the-mill-diet-plan advert and I do need to apologise for that, it is just that I am mostly in favour of what is practical and could only learn this lesson now.  Previously I was more of a two-meals-per-day-kinda-guy, simply because it is so practical.  In retrospect, I must admit that the difference is quite pronounced and the effort to stick to this regime, once back in society, will probably be worth it.

Told you!!

As seen 23rd of April 2012.  Photo courtesy of Braam Beukes SANAE 51 (i.e. teammate, blood brother, compadre, "for you, I kill the bull" scenario....)