Another week here on the riviera of the south! This week buried yet again beneath a layer of snow. There’s also bread making, work, training and some pretty lake photos.

Waste water treatment plant

Works in the ​waste water treatment plant (WWTP) building have progressed to the stage that we have been able to unload the four containers and move the actual plant in to the building. Four containers of gear takes up a lot of room to be able to start unpacking it so there is going to be plenty of shuffling of gear around until things are able to be installed in final positions.

One of the first jobs will be to install pipe and cable tray supports around the walls and then we can start putting those things in. 

Equipment being carried on a pallet by a forklift
Equipment being carried on a pallet by a forklift
Two expeditioners moving heavy equipment inside a large storage area
Equipment components positioned in the rear corner of a large storage space

Introducing Doris

Over the winter there is a lady on station that we have all grown to know and love. She didn’t arrive by the usual means of transport, in fact she was born and bred right here at Davis.

Dear readers, we would like to introduce you to Doris, the provider of our daily bread, joy, comfort and inner tummy contentment. Doris is our station sourdough starter and is tenderly cared for by Chef Damian. She is fed twice a day with exact amounts of food and water and each morning gives up her yeasty goodness to make our sourdough loaves, our chewy ciabatta and our chic baguettes. At times she is joined by her more robust rye mate Boris who provides loaves of weighty substance enjoyed by the many, manly men at Davis.

Damian, Doris and Boris, we applaud and thank you for all the bready happiness that you give us each day.

Two white bins of sourdough and rye starter in the kitchen
Sourdough bread on a cutting board
Piece of rye bread on a cutting board
Almost finished piece of bread on a cutting board
Expeditioner standing with a lid blocking his face in the kitchen

Traverse preparations

As part of traverse preparations the search and rescue (SAR) technically trained team spent time Saturday refreshing their skills. The agenda for the day saw the team practicing knots, setting up for a lower and raise for sloped surfaces (simulated by the perfectly flat green store floor), glacier travel, crevasse probing whilst anchored by a Hägglunds and setting up a polar pyramid tent.

Both of the two traverse crews will be given a training session covering some of these topics to assist them in understanding some of the challenges that may be faced whilst crossing the Sørsdal glacier.​

Four expeditioners stand in front of a red tracked vehicle carrying ropes and harnesses
Three expeditioners standing attached to ropes in an aisle of the storage warehouse
Expeditioner kneeling in an aisle beside a rope pulley system

Druzhby by night

Last weekend, Horse led a trip out to Watts hut accompanied by Alex, Sealy and Birdman. Their objective: light up lake Druzhby. After a drive through the late afternoon sunshine by quad and by Hägglunds, the party arrived at Watts hut and then journeyed the short distance on to lake Druzhby to drill holes for the evening’s light show before retiring to the hut for dinner and to wait the coming darkness.

A freshwater lake, Lake Druzhby freezes a stunning shade of blue, the ice so clear one can look down and see the bubbles and structures of the ice down below. With the aid of some ice drills and torches, this picturesque lake becomes startlingly beautiful at night, lit from below with torches and LED strips placed inside the holes. Once darkness had descended, the party headed back to Lake Druzhby obtaining strikingly beautiful results. 

A frozen lake with snow covered mountains in the background
Expeditioner standing over an electric drill on a frozen lake
Expeditioner standing over a electric drill with a larger drill piece on a frozen lake
Expeditioner sits atop a frozen lake illuminated by torchlight set into holes in the ice surrounded by darkness
A frozen lake illuminated by torchlight shining a blue green light through the ice.. the darkness of night above

So much snow

Snow piled high on balcony. sea ice in background
Snow cleared from roadways and piled high over buildings
Expeditioners standing in an entrance way covered in snow
Mechanical digger half concealed by a snow bank
Doorway and windows almost fully concealed by snow
Mechanical digger and a bulldozer clearing snow next to a large snow rise
Two expeditioners shovelling snow off a balcony
on