Travelling South
From pre-departure training, to isolation for COVID-19 precautions, to finally heading south and arriving at her Antarctic home for the next year – join Australian expeditioner Maddie Ovens on her journey to Casey research station for the 2020–21 season.
Survival training
Video transcript
VNJ Casey, VNJ Casey, this is VNJ one, do you copy?
Maddie Ovens, Senior Field Training Officer, Casey station:
Because we're so close to magnetic south at the moment, when the compass should be pointing us north, it's actually pointing us more like west. So when we take a bearing or use the compass to get a direction we actually have to add 102 degrees to whatever figure we get.
Here we are on the Bailey Peninsula just behind Casey station, doing some 24-hour survival training. Today we've been out doing a whole bunch of stuff from navigation to sea ice training, and just getting used to what it's like to be off station in Antarctica. We've arrived at our survival camp for the night where we've just been practising putting up one of our polar dome tents.
Later on we'll climb into our bivvies, have a dehydrated meal and hopefully get more than a couple hours of sleep before we head home in the morning.
That's it.
It's just gone 10.30 and the guys are climbing into their bivvies behind me.
For some people coming to Antarctica this might be their very first experience of camping, which I think is pretty cool, so hopefully they have a good time out there tonight.
We'll head back in the morning.
[end transcript]