The weather gods were kinder to the Mawson crew this week, allowing travel by Hägg and by foot.

Weekly round up

The weather gods have been kinder this week and a weekend jolly team comprising Nate, Cormac, Nick and Pat made it to Fang Hut for a Saturday night off station. They managed a sunset walk along the ridge above the hut and many (many) pictures were taken.

Whilst they were doing that, Mark and Esther walked over the sea ice to Béchervaise Island to prove that route and plan to open that area of the station operating area. A lovely walk on an almost windless day — takes about an hour one way — and the sea ice was over 70cm thick the whole way. Whilst Béchervaise is busy over summer with the penguins being home and the scientists in residence, over winter we are able to use it as a getaway from station. Being so close, I’m sure it will get quite a bit of traffic!

One of our station projects this year has been to clean out and brighten the library to make it a more user friendly space, particularly for those expeditioners that are studying while they are down here this year. Approximately 600kg worth of broken and out-of-date books and magazines have been RTA’d ('Returned to Australia': sadly no one reads the 1988 Encyclopaedia Britannica anymore when you have the internet) and Chippie Mal has finished a new tabletop for us: it’s all looking much more inviting in there now. Thanks Mal!

Saturday night saw Donna put on another of her lovely ‘family’ dinners for those of us left on station and the rest of the weekend was quiet with people catching up with home and doing their own thing. We’re all saving ourselves for ‘Biscoe Disco’ next weekend…

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