Reflections on a Season
They say that time management skills are what separate we humans from the humble Gentoo penguins: given how much this submission to Icy News has caught me off-guard, then I might as well grow some flippers and start working on my swim.
It’s been almost 12 months since I stepped off the mighty RSV Nuyina’s gangway on to the sea ice here at Davis and, with my cohort of fellow expeditioners, walked ashore to our new, if somewhat temporary home. During our 4-week voyage here, we had broken ice to within a helicopter’s flight of Casey station, then dropped in on the exceedingly remote and intensely beautiful Heard Island.
We here at Davis are running up to V1 resupply, and the pace has certainly picked up around station. Resupply is the project (the name of the game; the big kahuna), but before we can even start, we’ve got thousands of little jobs that need to get done: Shipping containers are emerging from their igloos of wintery snow and, like some artificial breed of livestock, are being herded round station with laser-like precision by our plant operator; Lay-down areas are being cleared of snow and flattened out; Mechanics are waking up frozen plant that have been hibernating all winter - just yesterday they were breathing life in to our two mobile cranes; I’m doing inspections on lifting kit so that we can put those cranes to work once resupply starts; the leadership team are composing numerous rosters and wargaming endless ‘what-if’ scenarios; there’s a team cutting a brand new runway on the sea ice this week.
Sadly, resupply also means that almost all of us are heading home. Assuming everything goes to plan (around here it almost always does), we’ll sail up the Derwent, berth at Macquarie Wharf, then share a few hugs, tears, and beers in Hobart. Then, after a few meetings at the AAD’s Kingston HQ, we’ll be percolating across Australia to our respective homes, families and communities.
Round here, we’re all abuzz with out our plans for when we get home. What am I most looking forward to? A holiday, seeing family, fresh fruit and veg, eucalyptus trees, the vast canola fields of the NSW central west. What will I miss? The stark, wild beauty of the Vestfold Hills, summering elephant seals and their endlessly amusing 100-decibel burps, co-hosting trivia nights, the 30-second commute to work, and the wonderful community of talented people with whom I’ve shared this place for the last 12 months.
‘Til the next season
Cam B
Boilermaker
