This week at Davis: 12 April 2013

Much like Casey station, Davis has its own battle of wills when it comes to staying fit or staying full.

With the highly contentious ‘Doc vs. Chef’ monthly weigh in, many of the guys have turned to the gym to offset the desserts and chocolate intake. Some are doing the hard yards on their own but, like myself, I need group motivation to keep my attendance up.    

Paul runs a very popular yoga class three times a week, with many guys skipping dinner to get a spot on the floor, as well a box-fit session on Mondays.

Our ‘Zen Master’ Collin is helping the guys find their inner Chi by taking them through the art of Thai Chi on Saturday afternoons.

In preparation for the Zombie apocalypse, I’ve being running a class called “Warrior Wednesday” followed by the screening of TV series “The Walking Dead”. The audience is encouraged to laugh and point out the mistakes made in the show and state how they would better deal with the situation.

Simon B

Emerging from the green store after another epic yoga session, we were greeted by a very clear, starry sky. As we started discussing the irony of auroras only occurring on the cloudy nights, Simon turned around and almost fell over on the spot. “Check it out guys, WOOO HOOOO, I love Antarctica!”

To the north, once we had walked clear of the green store, a faint ‘cloud’ was visible across the sky. Simon, Paul and I stood momentarily to appreciate our first aurora, then reality struck and I ran off to raise the alarm and get my camera gear.

Armed with my Canon 7D, a tripod and no aurora-shooting experience, I ventured up to the heli-hut as far from station lights as possible to see what I could conjure. As I did, the aurora stretched its arms wide and ran the full length of the sky. From the distant north, to the south where the sun was still saying its final twilit goodnight, the aurora was faintly rippling across the stars — just gorgeous! I was frantically experimenting with a range of settings on the camera in an attempt to capture the beauty above. Let’s just say it’s a work in progress.

Luckily I was later joined by Gavin, Keith and Pat who seemed to be having a little more luck in getting the good shots — ahhhh, the joys of great quality lenses and an ounce of know-how! Thanks for the tips Pat.

I’m sure as the season progresses, and we get some more active auroras, there will be more updates to follow on this!

And of course there is always Aaron’s outlook — that the auroras will be happening at lunch-time soon, so there’s no rush to stay up late at this stage. We’ll see how that plays out for him!

Richard Y