Hey guys,
Life down here is cruising along pretty good. It’s a pretty awesome place, when we first came down and did our compulsory Antarctic field training, (AFT its an over night camp that everyone has to do to learn a few skills about how to stay alive if caught outside), it was as cold as it has been here at winfly (September and early October). For quite some time we had minus thirty degrees and 25 knot winds which equates to -60 degrees when you add in the wind chill factor, so that was quite chilly but all the gear we are supplied with is excellent and works exceptionally well, so we weren’t even feeling it really. That is until we had to take it all off to jump into our sleeping bags. But now a month or so on things have warmed up considerably and it’s quite comfortable outside in about -6 degrees in jeans and a t-shirt if the sun is out and the wind isn’t blowing.
The work down here is good though it is taking some getting used to working six days a week. Have been kept busy doing fabrication, making sleds and tow bars for skidoos. The variation is massive from tig welding up broken tent poles, to helping finish off a ski tow, so we can get the ski field up and running. I’m really enjoying that side of the work. The other side is assisting scientists with their experiments like melting holes in the ice for divers and robots. I have also been transporting wannigans (huts on sleds) all over the place, and doing a fair bit of driving round, which is great.
I had the chance to go on a familiarisation trip out to Cape Evans and Cape Royds to see two of the most famous Antarctic huts here. Captain Robert Falcon Scotts hut at Cape Evans and also Ernest Shackletons hut at Cape Royds. It was certainly one of the most amazing experiences I have had in a very long time, seeing how they lived and what they ate. They were definitely very, very hard men.
Been having a fair bit of fun recreating as well, there is a dodgeball tournament going on at the moment over at McMurdo, (the American base three kms away), which we have a team in and we are starting to do quite well. It’s the first time any of us down here have played before so it has been a big learning curve and we're now getting the hang of it and beating the Americans at their own game. We have also had our first few sessions of rugby training which has been a lot of fun and also very exhausting. Something I didn’t realise is it’s extremely difficult to run on snow. Coming down here was only the second time in my life I had seen snow, so it’s been quite an experience.
The scenery down here is amazing, out on the Ross Ice Shelf you can just look around and see huge snow covered mountains in every direction. On a clear day you can see for hundreds and hundreds of kilometres.
Well I think that is all from me for now.
Regards
Simon Jansen