Survival and field travel training continued this week at Mawson with an overnight trip to Rumdoodle Hut for Heidi, Alex, Benny, Leon and Eddie.
With blue skies and minimal wind the field party practised their navigation and travel hazard skills during a trip to Fearn Lake.
It’s pretty special to celebrate a birthday in Antarctica… let alone sharing it with someone who was born on the exact same day and year as you.
Brian and Shane celebrated their birthday on 14 March, with two different types of cake and very special handmade gifts from Eddie our ingenious plumber.
Brian received a handmade golden sausage to celebrate his love of sausages; and Shane received a handy set of ready to wear hearing trumpets.
How are expeditioners spending their weekends at Mawson? It depends! We usually make the most any fine weather conditions to practice photography around the station. Last weekend included rock wall climbing in the green store and a quietly competitive card game of 500.
So far this season we have been blessed with mostly blue skies and sunshine, but just to remind us that winter is coming* we experienced a day of high winds on Tuesday with the highest gust of 89 knots (approximately 175km per hour) creating dramatic views of Horseshoe Harbour and the East Arm peninsula.
(*coincidentally Season One of Game of Thrones has commenced screening at Mawson on Monday nights at 7pm)
