Arrival at Davis Station 68deg 35min South 77deg 58min East

Finally land after 22 days at sea, 8.00am Wednesday the 6-11-13 Davis Station is now in sight and Ice burgs are an integral part of the landscape, an awesome sight there is minimal wind about -8, the bow of the ship is packed with cameras as we start our approach to the Station in the fast ice. Fast ice is hard ice which has been there since last season, it is approx. 1-1.8m in thickness.

 More burgs which sit just off Davis in the open ocean, these move up and down the coast once the ice is broken up over summer.

 View from the Living Quarters on the station to the airfield, the air strip is capable of landing a bazzler with no problem on the ice, the winterer s have been constructing the airstrip before our arrival, air ops will be based here for the Summer months only.











My Home for the next 12 months, rooms are comfortable and clean. With 24 hours of daylight approaching, the curtain is heavy which blocks the light out fine. It's warm on station in teh buildings temperature sits around 19-20 deg c which is very comfortable.

 These are containers to be returned to Australia, as part of quarantine requirements, nothing must have dirt or snow on it when returned, Chris was lumbered with the high water pressure cleaning of the buildings at -5 + wind chill, not a great job however, he completed the task with no complaints.

Living area in the LQ, there is a pool table, table tennis, Theatre, Bar of course, however no alcohol is permitted until after the re supply due some dickheads last year playing up.

 Mess area with accommodation for approx. 100 people, bit tight but we fit.

 Re supply activities, the Aurora Australis is in the background, parked in the Fast Ice, its about a 2.6k's away. Trucks loaded with containers and other goods travel along the designated roads to bring the materials and goods in. Pretty spectacular when you are driving 30 tonnes of truck and load across nothing but ice, which by the way is about 1.7m in thickness. The ship is sitting in approx 200m of water where it sits, so if something was to go wrong we're all gone.

RTA, equipement does not last that long here, this truck had about 30,000k's and was due to be changed over. The 4WD utes last probably a little less, harsh environment on motors and gear.

 In front of the ship, pretty standard pose for expeditions here.

Hitting the Ice

Hitting the colder climate and the past rough seas have combined to give the ship a new look.

First Icebergs sighted 9 days after leaving Hobart,  finally getting sleep seas have calmed, there is a different feel to the ship as most people are able to come out of their cabins.

Snowed last night, we are now in the ice, outside temp was around -8 wind chill down to about -15.

 King Neptune created us at 60 deg South, where all the first timers South which happened to include myself, were treated to a ceremony welcoming us and an initiation of sorts, which was a combination of food scrapes, Kippers, some green shit, and what I can only describe as an unknown stench.
Upon completion we were treated to a BBQ on the rear deck and an allocation of 2 beers each, first alcohol since leaving Hobart some 10 days prior

A few locals, came out to have a look at this big orange thing invading their territory. Makes you wonder what must be going through their minds.
Emperor Penguins are naturally curious, so when the ship was bashing through the ice they would come right over for a look.

We had some nice days with minimal cloud cover which gave us an opportunity to go outside and enjoy the fresh air and cameras were a must.

The Ice was proving difficult to get through the voyage was now about 7 days delayed, at one point we only achieved 1 nautical mile in 24 hours. Visibility was poor so the ship was stopping for about 4 hours from 12 midnight, this is when the light would drop, I would wake up as soon as we started to bash into the ice again around 4.30am.

Finally we had broken through the thick ice and made it to the polinia which is supposed to be clear water, however not to be, they had bad weather and all clear water was covered with pancake ice. Davis Station was less than 100 nautical miles and we would be arriving at around 4.00am the next day.

Ship Trip II

The next day saw us somewhere in the Southern Ocean, as the pics indicate the seas had not abated so moving around the ship was a delicate task, ensuring you were close to a handrail or wall at all times, temperature was beginning to drop we were now sitting at around 3-4deg outside, although the ship was quite comfortable in that department.

Access to the bridge was allowed most of the time which made for some views and photo opportunities. Photo above I attempted to keep the horizon as parallel as possible to give an indication of how far the ship was lurching, no wonder we were struggling to walk around.

The temperature had dropped and it had begun to snow on and off, the seas were still reasonably rough and we were heading due South to avoid a low pressure system which was of to the West. The Captain and Voyage leader figured that it was better to avoid any real big seas as about 80% of the ship was feeling pretty ordinary, I was continuing to hit the pills the side effects unfortunately are you feel rather fatigued, other wise it was lying vertical as much as possible, and the occasional spew.







Ice was beginning to form on the windows from the sea spray, which was an indication of how cold it was actually getting outside.

Ship Trip

Ship trip begun at Hobart on the 15th of October at 7.00pm after a 2 hour delay we were finally under way. Expected seas were 4 to 6m winds from the North East, true to forecast we hit the high seas at around 12.30pm, a couple of sea sick pills were in order just in case and as luck would have it they were required. Trying to sleep on a ship in 6m swells is not easy, the swell was coming from the North west and the ship travelling South to South West, not a good combination. Got up out of the bunk at around 1.00pm and thought I would go down and have a cup of tea, big mistake.
Upon arriving in the mess I found Nick, one of my cabin buddies sitting on a seat with legs spread trying to counteract the movement of the ship, as I exited the door from the stairwell the ship lurched to starboard, not really having sea legs saw me shoot across the mess crocs moving at half the speed my legs were, hitting the wall on the opposite side which in turn had Nick in fits of laughter and me thinking WTF.

My intentions of a cup of tea had now dispelled to thinking why did I ever consider leaving the bunk, then a wave of shit, my guts don't feel to good better sit down as quick as possible before fall down. Upon dragging the chair out we got hit again the ship lurched again which saw sauce bottles and chairs go shooting across the floor and tables alike I turned to Nick and asked what the F*&k are we doing here, between fits of laughter at what had just occurred and hanging on, his comment was "I have no idea, I thought a cup of tea would be nice, I couldn't sleep", on that note I said "well I'm going back to bed" (this was mainly because I thought if I don't go now, I'm going to throw up all over the place). 

Back into the bunk, feet jammed against one end and head against the other, we rode the night out.

The journey begins....


Arriving in Hobart from sunny Gold Coast, slight shock to the system from 26 deg to 11 in 4 1/2  short hours after a brief stop in Sydney. 1st hurdle find a cab which can cope with: 2 back packs, 1 120litre Patogonia duffle and 1 Cervelo bike in a suitably designed bike bag. Ahh taxi rank nothing but Prius as far as the eye can see, after some discussion with a very helpful cabbie a mini bus appears ready to take on the task.

I have travelled in many cabs over my time some trips more memorable than others, however on this occasion I have scored a champion, born and bred Tassie and full of information, after a brief introduction a healthy discussion on sites to be seen around Hobart begins, starting with the whether over the past week "Not usually this warm at this time of the year, although we had some snow last night on the mountain and over there, (pointing to the left) is the orangey roughy they've just spent 19 mil on it over in Singapore I believe" This guy was a driving google, and a credit to Hobart.

I arrived at my accommodation the Old Wool Store, nice place booked in "so your here Mr Stringer for 61 nights" something like that I responded, I was expecting to share a room with another expeditioner, but not to be a comfortable 1 bedroom self contained unit, that'll do.

The first 8 weeks of my new adventure is dedicated to training, anyone who has endured training would agree that the expectation is 8 weeks of classrooms and lectures good grief, however to my surprise, the training has been interesting and very well organised with the majority of the day being consumed and time passing quickly.

We also receive a kit to travel south and I received mine on Friday this week, the amount of gear is mind boggling but I suppose we are travelling to the coldest place on the earth.