Newsletter

With great excitement we have published our first newsletter. 


Please look under my pages for the relevant link.   

Evening sky

The absence of life in Antarctica, more specifically at SANAE, is sometimes still startling.  Occasionally you see a small puddle of water  (few times in summer) or you look in between rocks expecting to see insects or some form of life but you are always met with the sterility of this land.  There are two exceptions, namely an occasional bird and lichen, which is a form of algae growing on some rocks.  Still you are sometimes surprised to not see some critter where you have gotten used to them.  No ants, no flies, no mozzies.  Colds and flu are also rare so I guess there are not many bacteria or viruses floating around.  It probably emphasises one of the unique facets of Antarctica, bugs cannot survive here thus, unsupported life is virtually impossible.

Sunset II

I bought myself a new camera for my visit to Antarctica and I just discovered a new feature...time lapse shooting.  Hopefully this will help with capturing Aurora in a few months.  This is my first attempt.  I know it is not yet to the level I want it but I haven't blogged in more than a week.

With the base to ourselves most of our team moved into bigger or better rooms.  Mine has three windows now, so I spend a lot of time staring.  

Cold

I see the weather link I added right at the start of the blog (yr.no) predicts the weather as a little too extreme.  At the moment the average temperature is around -15 degrees.  The biggest factors in how cold it gets is wind and the height of the sun.  The padded jackets and dungarees together with the "pampoen skoen" (pumpkin shoes - orange multi layered shoes),  one or two layers, proper gloves and headgear make this climate very livable.  My feet for instance has only felt cold once or twice.  When you, for instance, need to untie a knot and you take your gloves of in windy conditions your finger tips become painful in a matter of seconds also your nose tip if not covered can become painful. Your rate of work also affects your comfort levels so we generally don't go into stormy weather to stand around.


Apart from the chill factor associated with wind the winds can also get strong enough to blow you off your feet.  As our base is on the edge of a 200 m cliff you don't want to loose your footing for too long.  In strong winds being a little over-weight is recommended.  The rule of thumb for the minimum weight for a certain wind speed is the wind speed in knots plus 10.  (I.e. for 50 knot conditions you need to weight 60 kg).  During the last storm that delayed the ship's departure we had gusts of up to around 70 knots.


Also bear in mind that we are at the end of our summer so I might revisit this page in a few months.

Colour

Before leaving for Antarctica I was warned that you get tired of the constant white around you.  Admittedly when the sun shines for the whole day most of the surroundings is white.  However, when the sun starts moving lower, as winter approaches, the range and intensity of colours are breathtaking.  Sometimes the scenery is really so big and so beautiful that you can just sit and stare into it.  It also changes so quickly that you can almost get frantic in trying to absorb all of it.  

Update

Such a lot has happened since my last post.  I will try and update as much of my experiences and thoughts as possible.  All posts may, however, not be in chronological order. 

 I have just returned from a Cat train.  As probably mentioned before that involves heavy strong agricultural vehicles pulling cargo and transporting passengers over the ice at a snail's pace.  The purpose was to take the last summer personnel and cargo back to the ship. Seeing that this was the first Cat train for our team as the people taking charge it had a different flavour to it.  Personality clashes, that was easy to ignore up until now, became a bit more pronounced.  With the weather not allowing things to go as planned our trip also took much longer than was anticipated.  So hard work, hard conditions and a lot of waiting had to be overcome and it put some strain on us as team more specifically the 6 that went with.  I do think, however, that some bridges between us as members are now stronger than before but on the other hand some divides seem bigger than was thought.  Division in our team will be a huge downer on what is otherwise a very special experience.  


So, reading between the lines you probably gathered that the days of isolation started.  We are now 10 people in SANAE.  With the Agulhas not able to reach the ice shelf due to 12 nautical miles of bay ice the cargo and passengers (in groups of 5) were flown off to the ship.


It was quite a reality check to see very competent people that have done so much work around the base leave and realising all that work is now on your plate.  It was also hard to say goodbye to some people that you started befriending.


That moment when we are left alone on the ice was something we discussed while still in Cape Town and I really dreaded that feeling and thought the enormity of it might be frightening.  It was quite a moment but I was also surprised how quickly one can grow accustomed to something.  All the terms and concepts that seemed so foreign 3 months ago are now my current normal.  

Check out my links

My blogging is a bit sporadic as there are things keeping us busy and because the internet is not always available.  I have added two other blogger's pages to my links so if you want to check it out please do so.  The one is from a journalist staying for the summer and the other is from my fellow team mate.