With the arrival of two planes and a ship over the past week, our season at Davis is coming to an end.
The first plane to arrive on the Davis sea-ice ski-landing area was a Basler DC3, utilised by the Chinese Antarctic program. The plane did a run from Zhongshan to meet the our C17 aircraft at Wilkins, where it picked up two of our new summer expeditioners as well as a head office staff member before flying to Davis.
A Twin Otter was the second plane to arrive at Davis a day later, a Ken Borek plane utilised in the Australian Antarctic program for the summer months.
And now the Aurora Australis has arrived and is breaking its way through the fast ice of Prydz Bay.
With the arrival of the ship comes new faces, about 95 of them. Our very spacious station will all of a sudden feel slightly cramped. Finding a seat for dinner is about to get a lot harder, as is finding your boots in the cold porch.
We, the 19 members of the 71st Davis ANARE, have had a very productive, safe and fun season and want to thank all our family and friends for allowing us the opportunity to leave home for a year and experience everything Antarctica and the Australian Antarctic program has to offer. THANK YOU!
Jason Ahrens
Station Leader
