This week at Mawson: 03 February 2023

Over the few short weeks that we had 24 hours of daylight here at Mawson the higher temperatures gave us a reprieve from the ‘usual’ Antarctic temperatures. The mean maximum temperature for December and January was 1.6ºC, and we even got up to 7ºC at the end of December. With that short period of warmer weather, the snow around station has melted away, now just bed rock remains, and the sea ice has broken up and blown out… what was once our highway to travel by Hägglunds to the outer islands and emperor penguin colonies is now deep ocean. But this is good news, for we now have an open harbour to receive the ships to station in a week's time.

With that brief period of warmth, life has appeared around station and in our local waters. A small patch of moss, which is usually covered in snow, has received the sun and sparked to life in a vibrant fluorescent green. We have been watching a family of orcas patrolling along the shore line each evening looking to make a meal of an unlucky penguin or seal. A small whale (minke or pilot?) has surfaced and lazily swum around the bay as we watched on in awe from our living room windows. And we have penguins arriving on station and waddling through looking for a good spot to hunker down for their moult. It’s most odd, and very entertaining, after so many months of being the only living beings on station to look out the window and see a line of Adélies walking across the bridge to the operations building or heading down the hill to the workshop.

In summer last year an iceberg calved off the ice cliffs in East Bay; the bay we look across every day from our living quarters. Over this past week the sea ice which was rotting away with the warm temperatures has blown out during a blizzard and we watched in awe over a few short hours as the iceberg moved from its locked in location against the cliffs. Now halted in position in the centre of the bay it is mesmerising as it rocks and rotates with the coming and going of the tides. It’s quite amazing to see such a changed landscape, when everything has been stagnant for nine months, all has moved so much in just a few short weeks.

And much like the iceberg which has been locked in position for those nine months and has suddenly broken out grasping for freedom, we too will soon be moving from our locked in position at Mawson and in a sudden rush of two ships, new crew, resupply and refuelling we will soon be making our move towards freedom and a return to the real world.

If living in Antarctica through the middle of Winter is a marathon, then these last few weeks as we prepare for the ships to arrive and the incoming crew to join us is a sprint. In fact, it’s a sprint at the end of the marathon. I’m hoping we have the stamina to make it across the finish line. I’ll let you know in about three week's time when handover of the station is complete and we’re finally on the ship on the way home.

Wish us luck.

Bec, SL

In some terrible madness that is supposedly an Australian Antarctic Division tradition we are informed that it is the done thing to swim in the Antarctic waters on Australia Day. Much as I searched, no background on this can be found, but despite the lack of evidence, it seems that is what must be done.

So, one sunny afternoon, last week (actually on the 25 Jan as blizzard was coming in on the 26 Jan) a few hardy souls donned their bathers and took the plunge into the icy waters of Horseshoe Harbour. For most a VERY rapid plunge, in and out as speedily as possible, and then frantic efforts to warm up as hastily as possible.

As if in payment for our brave efforts, we celebrated the public holiday with an Ozzie themed brunch, a late lunch with delicious spit roast lamb and the centrepiece, and an afternoon of games – the Mawson Olympics - with mini golf, darts, pool, giant jenga, and an assortment of novelty games. A most excellent way to forget the horrors of the swim.