This week at Davis: 24 October 2014

“If there really is a pole at the South Pole, I bet there’s some explorer-guy with his tongue stuck to it.” — Bob Van Voris

“Cats are smarter than dogs. You can’t get eight cats to pull a sled through snow.” — Jeff Valez

In preparation for the arrival of the summer team (70+ expeditioners) some station personnel are currently moving rooms to ensure there’s plenty of space for the masses.

To coincide with the Aurora Australis departing Hobart for Davis the 2014 Davis Winter team held their ‘End of Winter’ formal dinner on Wednesday evening.

Chef Lesley did a magnificent job preparing for the big night and with her many helpers the night was perfect. There were many speeches of appreciation, a recount of the highlights of the year and the trades team presented all 20 expeditioners with a handcrafted ‘67^th ANARE — 2014 Davis Station’ ice axe.

An enjoyable night for all.

Another one of the science projects our team supports is to regularly record water levels at Deep Lake — the lake is located approx one hour’s drive from station. Unlike all the other lakes in the Vestfold Hills, Deep Lake is so salty it never freezes during the winter months. During the week Stu and Dave drove out to Deep Lake to take photos of the measuring stick, as well as record the wind speed, water and air temperature.

This week ‘On the Job’ focus has involved further grooming the sea ice skiway and marking the boundaries of the landing area, general station maintenance, and we continue to work through the large list of tasks requiring completion before the Basler, Twin Otter and the Aurora Australis arrive all within the next few weeks.