And now, the end is near.
And now, the end is near.
243 Days, a lot can happen in 243 days. Whole sporting seasons start and finish, Venus orbits the sun, and the winter team at Casey Station don’t see any other people. The 33 people here over the winter spent that amount of time with just each other for company. Eight months, on their own.
UNTIL
On Tuesday things changed, and rapidly. The station population almost doubled overnight, as we welcomed two Basler aircraft to our Skiway. And suddenly there were new faces, new people awake early in the morning, new people at dinner and in the bar at night. The station woke up from its winter slumber and started to prepare for the busy summer season. We saw some old friends again, and some new ones too.
And it’s bittersweet. To think, we have spent that much time, on our own, through the dark and cold is something that I definitely wouldn’t have thought that I would ever be doing. But I’m so very glad I did. I’m so glad that my very first time seeing snow was here, and that I got to experience what so few people ever get to. And we are, maybe, less than a month from leaving. From leaving our home, and our friends. From seeing our families again, and moving back into our homes. What will we do, when we don’t have the routine of Casey Station? When we don’t know whose footsteps are in the hallway. Laughing at inside jokes. Soon we will be back to our lives. It’s exciting and scary.
For the first time in 243 days, others did the kitchen clean up. We had a different chef cooking us meals. There is a line for dinner. The place is alive, with the excitement of the first time expos. It brings energy to the winter team.
We are now in the process of gearing up to handover the station. Hopefully we left it in a good state for the next team, and they have the time of their lives down here. I know I have.
Michael De Lacey
Comms Tech
79th ANARE
