Arriving at Davis

Well, the time had come. Waking up at 7am and discovering the ship had finally parked up in the ice and it was the moment we had all been waiting for. Time to get out, stretch our legs and get to the station.

Well, we were kept waiting a bit longer, and then a bit longer

again, and then it was finally there, time for one last lunch on the ship.

Then a bit more waiting, then it was time to get off for real.

On to the ice, one look back at the ship then a 4km walk across the sea ice into the station. Luckily we were warned the ice could be slippery, so we had boot chains (basically like snow chains for your car, but that you put on boots) ready to go, as the last 1km of ice was very slippery.

 

 

A few inquisitive penguins came up on the walk in.  This was pretty exciting as it was the first time there was no real barrier between myself and the penguins.  It was also a bit strange to think, that even though it looked solid and feelt solid, the ground I was walking on was actually frozen water over the sea.  In the two pics above the white ground is frozen water.

Walking in a bit closer there was a good view of the station. There was a definite feel of excitement as everybody got their first up close look at the station, and yes that is an airstrip out the front of the station.

 

Walking into the station there is a definite homely view about the place. You are greeted by one of those signes showing the distance and direction to lots of different cities. This is the left picture at the top of this blog, but here it is closer for you to see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I thought about listing all the places on the sign, but that may be the subject of  a latter post as I run out of things to talk about. The yellow building behind the sign is the operations building, this is where my work is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you beat that view out the front of you office or home?

 

I thought about giving you all a quick tour of the station now, but then I though I would just highlight a couple of pictures, and then try to focus some blogs in more detail on individual sections of the station. Ok, so I changed my mind, I can be fickle can’t I?

 

You might note that last picture. There is an actual post office here, I used it to send some mail back when I arrived here, and we do get mail, although not very frequently.

Feel free to send some mail if you want, and I will try to take pictures with things you send down if you want.

My address here is;

Nichol Hill
Davis Station
Australian Antarctic Division
203 Channel Hwy
Kingston TAS  7050