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The good run of cargo operations has continued and by mid afternoon yesterday all the ingoing cargo had been delivered to station. We then started clearing out all of the outbound cargo from Davis. Some of this we will take to Mawson and Casey while some will be returned to Hobart. Mick and Dave drove the jet barge all day to and from the ship with 20ft shipping containers, smaller E boxes and even a log skidder (a big kind of tractor) coming on board. All of these sometimes ungainly loads were expertly dispatched by those ashore and deftly stowed by the crew. It certainly doesn't look easy to manoeuvre some of these things into the ships hold. The three helicopters flew to the Chinese station at Zongshan yesterday and collected 9 Chinese expeditioners who have joined us for the trip home. Many of the Davis crew also boarded yesterday and we had over thirty of us on board last night. We are looked after fantastically well on the ship by Katrina and Wendy and their team, with great food and good banter never in short supply from the galley. All of those joining us are loving the fresh fruit that we still have on board from Hobart. Things will become even busier for the catering team now with more and more people joining the ship as we travel along however we are certain of continued goodies coming from the galley and it's crew. This morning is overcast yet still very nice with low winds and flat water speeding the loading work along. Behind Davis we can see the plateau of ice rising up southwards from behind the rocky Vestfold Hills. The sun rose over the Vestfolds this morning and shone blindingly bright through a small sliver of clear sky above the ice before disappearing behind the cloud for the day. We will leave Davis tonight and head for the Progress station area of Prydz Bay and our next task. All going well we will write from somewhere at the head of Prydz Bay tomorrow morning. Yours Aye Robb and Simon
Map
A map showing Australia and Antarctica. The map shows the journey of one voyage that has occured in the season, with each route highlighted in a distinct colour.