Travel Training

This week we undertook Travel Training, this is aimed at familiarisation of the area including more orienteering and GPS navigation and quad travel.

Day one:
We left station at 12.00 for Brookes Hut, lunch then onto Platcha Hut for the night, party consisted of Corey (Dieso), Stu (Comms), Judy (Doc), Anthea (FTO) and myself.
Platcha is located on the edge of the plateau under a glacier and is usually subject to high winds, the forecast was for high winds on the plateau 30-40 knots, decreasing on Thursday morning to 10-15 knots.
Luck would have it that the forecast was incorrect and the winds didn't eventuate to much more than about 10-15 knots which made it quite pleasant to take in the incredible views of the glacier.

Day two:
We headed out from the hut to undertake some local area sites and training in ice axe techniques, then it was off to the next site for the night further North along Tryne Fjord to the Woop Woop track up onto the Plateau then to the polar tent site.
The weather was fine with the sun and clear skies, some high cloud which, I'm led to believe, indicates the approach of a front. By the time we had reached the Plateau the weather had turned for the worse, definition was difficult and visibility had dropped to about 10 metres, the decision was made to discontinue travel to the Plateau and head back down to lower ground. By the time we had reached the Fjord again the weather had lifted and visibility was again restored, part of being in Antarctica.
We then proceeded to Snezhnny Bay to look at a melt pond which forms under the Glacier, this was a great sight to see, unfortunately with the fresh snow the ice was covered however according to Corey, the ice is really blue and reasonably clear, still a spectacular sight. Then off to the polar tent site, we reached the site just as the weather turned again, snowing and wind from the NE at around 30knots made the tent erection quite interesting, I must say there is not many times in your life you sit in a snow storm and cook your dinner, however mission accomplished, freeze dried lamb casserole, cup of soup and off to bed.

Day three:
Off to Bandits Hut for a look, located on the edge of a hill, with spectacular views back across to the Plateau then headed North again to Mikkelsen's cairn, Caroline Mikkelsen was the wife of a Norwegian whaling Captain the first female to visit Antarctica who landed there in 1935. Unfortunately the Adelie penguins are nesting on and around the island so access was not possible to the site, however there was still plenty of ice burgs and locals to investigate. We then wove our way back to Davis through the ice burgs on the sea ice arriving back at station at 3.00pm Friday, just in time for the bar to open.