A couple of weeks ago, six of us had an opportunity to visit the Auster emperor penguin colony, which is about 55km from station. We have a visitation policy which outlines how often we can visit the area, as well as how close we can get to the colony to ensure minimal disturbance. We park our vehicles 500+ metres away from the colony and walk in over the sea ice, where we sit and wait for some inquisitive visitors. It usually doesn’t take long. It is such a special place, everyone could sit for hours and watch nature at its raw best.
This is not a wildlife park or zoo. This is the real deal and the eighteen people who make up the 74th ANARE at Mawson are the privileged few who have an opportunity to visit Auster this season.
There is a field hut at Macey Island which is about 10km away from the Auster colony and this is where we can camp for the night if required. On this trip we stayed one night at Macey hut and on arrival it was all hands on deck for snow clearing duty.
Hope you enjoy the photos, I enjoyed taking them.
Jason
