It's been almost 1 month since my last update..... lots of things have been happening here...
Once again the auroras have been putting on some magnificent light shows. I'm still amazed every time I see an aurora. No two auroras are ever the same. I've put together a couple of time lapses, this first one was looking SSW towards the plateau and the sorsdal glacier. The moon rose so gracefully over the plateau and added another dimension to the photos. You'll see in the first few seconds a satellite near the plateau moving in an upwards direction.
The other night I went out photographing the aurora when the temperatures fell to -31.7 degrees Celsius! I was outside for about 2 1/2 hours before my camera froze over. Not to mention my eyelids froze together on at least 3 occasions....
However I did manage to get a few nice photos :)
And a few days later..... Love this photo where the aurora crosses over the milky-way!
We've been getting more amazing sunsets here.... I'll let the photos do the talking....
The days are getting shorter and we're seeing less of the sun. Some days we don't see the sun at all being hidden behind the clouds, and other days when we do it's skimming across the horizon, causing chaos with the sun glare, almost like driving in peak hour traffic, without the traffic!
Anzac Day
We commemorated Anzac day on April 25th with a simple ceremony at sunrise at 1003am. Followed by a gunfire brunch followed by an hour of two up. A very unique place to be on Anzac day and one to remember.
Last two elephant seals.
The last two elephant seals departed station in mid April. Almost unimaginable seeing 80 odd seals here in the summer dwindle down to only two. Off to swim in the depths of the ocean, they will return to Davis station and surrounding areas towards the end of the year.
STORMS IN ANTARCTICA? YES!
I was amazed the other day to see some real stormy clouds in Antarctica this week (7th May). I'd never thought I'd see a storm that I'l be excited about, other than blizzards. We'd just had some snowfall and some soft hail pellets earlier that morning. The temperatures were hovering around -5 degrees Celsius. I could see the stormy clouds developing over the plateau and knew that the winds were going in increase later in the afternoon. It was amazing to see the mammatus clouds, stirred up by the strong winds and precipitation. Areas of the cloud had that greenish tinge which is a sign of hail. At times the wind was strong enough to cause blowing snow above 2m up at the plateau and kinda looked like some brief tornado spin-ups, even though I knew it wasn't. As the storm clouds approached and the wind increased the temperature also increased to around -3 degrees Celsius. If that was not enough, shortly after 4pm I had actually witnessed rain..... Yes you heard right... RAIN, which is not very common in Antarctica due to the temperatures. However under certain conditions it can rain here. There were only a few drops mixed in with the snow and soft hail pallets, I had to think twice and ask myself am I imagining things?
Soft hail measuring around 3-4mm in diameter.
Blue Bergs
I thought it was about time to do some exploring around station limits. So off to the North Eastern perimeter to climb some hills which are only 30m above sea level and approximately 1km from Davis Station along Dingle Road. I was wanting to get some photos of the blue icebergs (Blue bergs) out in the frozen sea ice. These blue bergs form from in different ways. The easiest is the reflection off the clouds, as in this case the clouds were a dark grey/blue. Also the bergs had less air content ie: the ice had been compressed. This happens as the ice flows down a glacier and then bits break off into the ocean. It provided a great perspective of the icebergs and the station from afar.
View across Davis station on the left onto Prydz Bay, Garden Island in the middle (49m high), Anchorage Island (53m) with Bluff Island (65m). Approx 1km from station
Marchants Landing.
I went for a walk out to Marchants Landing, which is about 1km from station. Within station limits it's a good place to get away from station life and chill for a few hours. Amazing what you'll find out there too. I was told about the mummified seals and was truly amazed to see just how preserved some of the deceased seals were. It is sad to see these seals in their final resting place, but once again that's life and part of real Antarctica.
This week at Davis
Once again make sure you check out "This week at Davis" which is updated every Friday with photos and stories from our expeditioners.
Pretzel nook
Special mention goes to our Summer chef that has returned back home and has started making his world famous pretzels. Check out his website Pretzel Nook for further information on where to buy these award winning pretzels! The pretzel nook's facebook page can also be found here....