Anzac Day

Today we celebrated Anzac day with a dawn service. Dawn ere is currently at about 10:30 so it is not to hard to get up for.
We raised the flags and had a minute of silence.
After that we all headed inside for some Anzac biscuits and rum. Very civil i think.

Some nice Sunsets

As the time draws closer for the sun to set for 6 weeks we have been seeing some amazing sunsets. Sunset is at about 4:30pm, so you have to be on the ball to take pics or you miss it.

 

The SMQ

A few weeks ago I showed you all the Medical suite, if you remember this was located in the SMQ.

SMQ stands for Sleeping and Medical Quarters. As you can guess we sleep in this building. It also houses a few other things  will tell you about.

To look at it is not the most stunning of buildings, just a big green rectangle. Like most building down here to get inside you go though a cold porch. This is basically and room that is used to stop all the cold going straight inside, and also a place to leave you outdoor clothing.

Once inside the SMQ is two stories tall. Half of the bottom floor being taking up with the medical suite. The rest is mostly bedrooms.

The bedrooms are in a ring around the outside of the building so everybody has a window, with the inside containing bathrooms.

 

Upstairs their is also a laundry and drying room for washing clothes, and a small rest area with a kettle and some chairs.

Upstairs also has a linen room, a sewing room for fixing any clothes or making costumes (as some people seem to do) as well as Woollies. Woollies is where we go to get any supplies we might need like shampoo, de-odorant, tissues etc.

Downstairs houses a dark room, which does not see much use, but before digital photography was in high demand (the doctor still uses it to develop x-rays though), along with a computer room (people have their own computers in their bedrooms though), and under the floor a dress up room, where costumes are stored for fancy dress nights. Also under the floor is the brewery, but I will cover that another time.

 

 

My bedroom is on the downstairs floor, this is quite handy as the  enclosed link to the LQ (where we eat and hang out) is on the downstairs floor also. I will tell you about the LQ another time.

More Aurora

Last night I went outside to try and get some more aurora shots. I got a few but also just took some night time shots of the station.

Watts Hut

Ok, another walk to Watts Hut. This time Mark, Spaggers, Linc, Kim and myself headed for three days. The night before had seen some heavy snow fall, so luckily we managed to get a lift out along dingle road in a Hagg (over snow vehicle) thus saving ourselves 2-3 km of walking.

 

 

Once we arrived at the hut, Kim (the Chef) had been planning to make us bangers and mash for dinner, but alas there was no Deb to be found in the hut. I order to prove his culinary supremacy, in true Macgyver like fashion, using  only some soup packets to go with the snags managed to make an amazing sausage curry.

After dinner we settled down and had a few drinks and a yarn.

 

Day two and we headed on a walk up and around the back of Watts Lake, to Lebed Lake. This was a magic day with bright sun, clear skies and a coating of snow over all the rocks giving a what a Imagine to be Switzerland like feel to the place.

 

Day three and it was time to head home. We had some strong wind that made for hard walking but the trip was enjoyed by all.

 

Earth Hour

We even decided to join in on earth hour in Antarctica, And thus had a night with candle light. I took the opportunity to try and take some more artistic pictures.

Field Travel Training

You are possibly thinking, field travel training, hasn’t Nichol already done that? If you were thinking that you would be correct. However I have been appointed as the Search and Rescue leader down here which means that I am in charge of looking after the search and rescue team and training, along with managing any SAR activities that go on.

One part of this role was having to train the new winterers that just arrived on V4. So off we headed. The plan was to go to deep lake for a night in Bivvies, the spend the second night in watts hut after walking there.

Staying in a bivvy at –17 is not the most pleasant experience. In fact the actual staying in the bivvy, and sleep was not to bad. It is just cold before you go to bed and when you wake up in the morning.

Needles to say everybody was happy to spend the next night in a hut.

 

so Hello, Goodnight and Goodbye

Well, after much anticipation the final voyage for the season has shown up, brining with it new faces for the winter but also taking away most of the station population, dropping the numbers from around 100 to only 25.

We all went out in the cold to wave good bye to ship as the last helicopters flew out to it. Now the winter begins, hopefully the sea ice will form soon as walking is the only form of transport we have until this happens and we can use quads.

It is just us until next November when the ship comes back bringing with it people, helicopters and supplies.