Jen communicating with the locals (pic: Shane Mitchell)

Jen communicating with the locals (pic: Shane Mitchell)

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Jungle Jen Revisited

So...


I stopped blogging...


Which suprises, well... none of you (yess, all two of you reading this).

I've been talking about getting back on to update this pretty much all year (and last year)... only six months in to the most recent adventure, not a bad effort right? (See previous post re:procrastination).


So I left Willis Is, headed for what was supposed to be Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean for a stint chasing penguins and seals around in the rain, only to get sideswiped, and low and behold, I find myself as Office In Charge of the Obs Program at Davis Station, Antarctica.


Population: 23


For anyone who remains with any doubt;

1) No. I don't like people, and

2) Yes. I am a glutton for punishment.


Six months in, summer has ended and the beginning of what is to be the darkest, coldest winter fathomable by this intrepid explorer has crept up with freight train like stealth. Summer consisted of up to 90 people on station, ridiculous penguins, some very smelly seals, forays in the field of huts, rocks, hills, and devine little melt lakes (which- after a quick dip to investigate the feasibility of an outdoor natural swimming pool, I concluded was VERY VERY cold!), helicopter rides, boat trips, more awesome penguins, laughs, tears and endless sunshine.
For a while...
And then it got cold...



Last week the mean orange bathtub VNAA Aurora Australis finally arrived to retrieve the summer personnel and leave but a few stragglers on base for the winter. For now there are 24 of us; including station leader, chef, doc, some tradies, some other tradies, a couple of science boffins and ofcourse, Met.


The idea of this blog is to get some photos out there, particularly for those keen to live vicariously through antarctic expeditioners, and to keep me vaguely entertained for the amount of time I finally find to update this throughout winter. Comments welcome, sorry for the slackivity (new word, I'm trying it out).



I'll keep you posted.

so to speak....


jj