A change of scenery

Well, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth... entirely.

The reason for my absence from my blogging duties is because I have moved 'home'. That's right, I have changed stations! On Wednesday the 19th of November (sorry about missing your birthday Mat) I flew from Davis Station to Mawson Station to spend the summer.

Mawson has always been a goal of mine and is considered by many to be the pinnacle of Australia’s Continental Antarctic stations for numerous good reasons.

Mawson can be described with many superlatives which you will hear in due course but it is also home to a few impressive records!:

• It is the oldest continually manned Antarctic station on the continent and the site of the 1st ANARE (Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition) in 1954.
• It is the first Antarctic station to have a portion of its power supplied by wind generation (at the moment over half of the power here is generated by the two wind turbines). 
• It is the last station to have a pack of Husky sled dogs, they were kennelled here until 1993.
• It is the furthest station from Australia and also the smallest Australian station by population.

Despite all this Mawson talk I am going to finish off this brief blog with a few photos of the last month or so at one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Davis Station.

HDR of the Aurora Australis at anchorage on V1 resupply

Playing around with extension tubes and snowflakes (thanks uncle Tony!)

The Weddell seal pupping area at Brookes.

It's a Seal's life.

A religious iceberg? (geddit...)

A friendly Emperor.

Tina, Penguin whisperer.

Time for your close up...

Such a beautiful bird!

A little Adelie dood.

2013/14 Davis Diesos saying goodbye, for now.

Our amazing Celery Top and Sassafras winterers plaque.

And a couple of shots from Mawson...

The Mawson fleet waiting for a plane.

The old warbird on approach.

DC3's are a beautiful plane from any angle!

Stay tuned for more updates from 'Awesome Mawson'...