Return trip to Halley 2011, Antarctica via Capetown

Another to trip to the cold, dry continent known as Antarctica. This time only for 4 months and part of my time will be to help out with the meteorology and once the ship arrives to set up the CASlab (clean air sector laboratory) and get the instruments up and running for the coming season. To get to Antarctica i had to take a flight to Cape town and then the russian plane to Novo (russian antarctic station) was delayed for a few days so we had to suffer the food and atmosphere of cape town for a few more days. Lots of steaks, seafood, wine, coastal walks and city tours; really not that bad.

A quick dip or rather a little paddle in the absolutely freezing waters of Cape town (camps bay). At least there were no sharks in the shallows but i do think my hair fits in with the blue skies, thanks nic ;-)

The pinnacles of table mountain from the coastal path walk to camps bay from cape town (2 hours). The scenery was amazing as you can see and i heard that the walk across the pinnacle range is amazing too...another day perhaps.

The view from city centre is just this. Do i need to say anymore. Breathtaking. No other city like it.

A grand city hall.

An organized safari on a nature reserve, not sure what these long necked creatures are ;-) but they sure are elegant and graceful.

A few elands and the like to keep the grass short.

Some water buffalo and a few zebras to help with the grass

Now this is an amazing sight. Four cheetahs inside a pen. None of them tamed but used to men entering the cage to feed them and not so used to tourists being in there as well to watch them being fed. Amazing feeling to get so close to them but kind of scary as well. We hunched down to get a better shot wand were told to stand else they might think we were prey. They hissed a couple of times.They were beautiful and frightening. Once the food ran out it was time to leave but no running......

A few more grazers enjoying the day.

Just a quick glimpse at some of the food on offer. This wasn't all for me :-)

site tour

The garage with a bulldozer

the melt tank for our daily water

The weather blimp and its haven

The big house

The freezer

the freezer

The entertainment building

The sauna

The vehicles

BBQ

Not really a Halley BBQ.

Thats one large bottle of JD

The BBQ team, me, christine and craig

Cathy and craig share a shot in the cold

Everyone took in.....

Independence day

July 4th celebrations.

The day began with a fancy dress parade with floats. Flags were flown. There was a mixture of people at the camp, 2 british, one canadian, one german and a french guy. The other 27 were from various places in american.

Each group made a float. This was the staff and there fraternity float.

This is the pink PIG where we move the clean water to the main building.

the girls taking a relaxing ride.

The boys trying to go faster on the back of skidoos.

dear oh dear what have we here!!!!!

Romans and countrymen.

wow its cold!!!

max and steve pulling a Doasis dummy.

The sat camp scientists dressed as things from the sea 

dancing the night away or at least trying to.

come on jake show me how it's done.

Science at summit

The SATCOM building where all the scientists gather to blog and write emails...oh and work up data.

The yellow tent next to it is the toilet. All materials are taken back to base to be disposed of.

The bally building so named after the manufacturers. This is where the two CIMS instruments are held as well as other small scientific instruments such as ozone, NO, spectro-radiometers and mercury measurements.  

A variety of instruments within the Bally building.

The air sampling bottles. These are filled with atmospheric air and then shipped to the USA where they will be tested for various atmospheric constituents.

Back of the NO instrument.

The mist chamber to measure soluble air particles.

This is what you have to do if you are a canadian (sorry tara!!!!) or fancy doing some snow sample

Summit Greenland

The C130 with engines running ready for take off. Never stops for more than an hour to unload and pick up and the engines are never shut down.

The base from afar.

The big or blue house. Mainly a kitchen and canteen area which can seat about 50 people.

Rest of the base.

The main toilet block, his and hers.

Sleeping accommodation.

A game of snow golf. Seven holes. This one in between the bunkers (toilets).

The pro golfers.

Bonnie and kitty take a ride in an electric buggie (bad boy)

Relax in the big blue house.