On a gorgeous sunny day, I headed out with two keen expeditioners to test drill the sea ice within the station recreation limits. It was so nice to get off station and walk around the expansive sea ice with islands and birdlife.
Just near station is a long thin arm extending out into the sea that is a nice place to visit. It’s the perfect place to be at sunset with the amazing clouds through the sky.
We get settled into our new home while a long resupply takes place, and each person from our team in the 74th ANARE does a handover with their counterpart from the 73rd ANAR.
A breathtaking helicopter flight over the varying sea ice, takes us to our new home, Mawson Station, perched on an ice-free part of the shore and backed by the Framnes Mountains.
Through the sea ice with beautiful scenery, and wildlife on the ice floes, we head toward our home for a year. The Everest, not being an icebreaker, tries to sneak its way through the pack-ice toward the station but falls a fair way short for a complete resupply.
The voyage from Hobart to Davis Station through the roaring forties, furious fifties and screaming sixes of the Southern Ocean on the MPV Everest, a ship more used to conducting saturation diving than Antarctic voyages. We encounter whales, dolphins, albatross, petrels and many other sea birds along the way.
I arrive in Hobart in early December in preparation for my job as a Field Training Officer with the Australian Antarctic Division, just getting my head around the job that I’ve never done before but will be doing solo at Mawson Station. Tash comes to Tassie for the Christmas and New Year holiday so we can spend some time together before I head away for a year.