Worms!!

Was on cooking duty tonight, so after eating, not dying, and cleaning up the kitchen we wanted to go smelly quick just to get out of the base for a bit, but when we stuck our faces out the door to see how cold it is, the wind kinda put a damper on that plan. The sunset was however one of the prettiest ones yet, so a few of us decided rather than snuggling up under a blanket in front of a movie, we are going to go watch the sunset on the roof in our sleeping bags.

So take five to go grab our semi-mummy bags, gloves, beanies, buffs and cams and then meet under the trapdoor.

When we got up onto the roof it was a bit of a mission to get into the sleeping bags without the darn thing living out its lifelong dream of being a kite and flying off the roof with you half inside. After some struggling with the zippers (its seriously not easy getting the zipper up with gloves on, and without them your fingers kinda freeze off) we could eventually sit down and appreciate the scenery.

We just sat there looking like fat worms taking pics and enjoying the awesomeness of it all till the wind inevitably found its way into the sleeping bags too.

After a while of freezing (but being tough cause we are mos way too hardcore to admit that our toes and fingers are actually icicles), we decided that the few meters back to the hatch and the climb down the ladder will be done inside the seeping bags since its way too much hassle to get out in the wind.



So we wormed our way back inside the nice warm windless base and warmed ourselves up with some tea and choc cookies..


I love how I always have someone as nuts as me to share these crazy awesome moments with!!

Frosty flips

Its Sunday again and we are having pretty sunny weather, so last night it was decided that we should make the best of the nicer weather and do a trip to the windscoop. Initially I was part of the crew that would be staying behind to look after the base, but when morning came, most people chickened out, so I could jump over to the bunch that was going.

After struggling till forever to get two working skidoos down from the hangar, we were finally off. Vince on the one skidoo with a cargo sled to take emergency rescue equipment and snacks, and Braam on the other skidoo with me and Johan on a passenger sled. About half way there Braam's fingers were pretty much frozen, so he switched so Johan can drive further. I have to say about the same time I was also seriously freezing. Even if its sunny with not much wind,  -27ºC is really cold! Even my toes (inside two pairs of  -25ºC rated socks and Pampoenskoene) were aching, not even mentioning my fingers inside 3 pairs of proper gloves with some (later discovered to be completely nonfunctional) handwarmers.

Nobody wants to be the wuss that caused the others to have to go back earlier, so at the next stop I started running and jumping around like a crazy person just to warm up. It totally worked! We fooled around on the ice for a bit, doing cartwheels and handstands like monkeys, but the cold was kinda getting to everyone and hot choc under a snuggly blanket was seriously starting to sound like an awesome plan!

**more ice fooling around photies on the pics page..

On the way back me and Braam sat the wrong way round on the sled and kinda huddled together for warmth (it was really really just for survival purposes!!) which seemed to work pretty well.

Hopefully we'll have some more sunny (warmer) weekends to go play around in the snow!

First taste of aurora..

Since around the 7th of March our aurora alarm has been going nuts, night and day. The problem though, during the day its light, and lately during the night its either super stormy or really cloudy, either way, you can't see a thing!

Last night we had a clear sky and not much blowing snow, so everyones hopes were high. A couple of us somme stayed up just incase there is aurora, so then we are sure we won't miss it. Around 12ish me and Johan figured we saw something through the lab window, so we kitted up and headed out. To be honest, we weren't sure if it was just lightish clouds or actual aurora till the one 'cloud' was suddenly giving off this bright green color. The feeling was amazing! We stood there staring at it till our eyeballs froze, and then decided to come in and rather watch in the warmth of the base through the windows.
The moon was full, so it was pretty light out, and the rest of the lights were too dim to take pictures, so that was a bit of a bummer.

These are pics some of the S49ers took in their year..

**thanks James for my stolen pics :)

If it felt this awesome to see such a faint aurora, then I can't wait for the actual awesome ones!!

Smelly bums

If Antarctica were music it would be Mozart. Art, and it would be Michelangelo. Literature, and it would be Shakespeare. And yet it is something even greater; the only place on earth that is still as it should be. May we never tame it. - Andrew Denton

After we were done filling up the smelly tonight, the sun/sky/moon was so pretty that two of us decided to somme stay outside for a bit and just let it all sink in. We just lay there on the ice like bums, staring at the awesomeness around us. Kinda makes you think, how priviledged am I to be able to experience this - Antarctica in all its glory.. How many people have dreamed of being here, and here I am, a 24year old 'kid', getting to experience Antarctica for a year.

I love how we will never be able to present this place with a pink ribbon tied around it, nope, its just raw untamed nature. It will definitely not adapt to you, and if you don't adapt, you simply won't make it. Nothing is easy, so things that don't count (like me Mommy always says) don't matter any more, petty things needed for society to "work" isn't needed here, and you can be who and whatever you want to be, nobody minds.. The best part of all is, here you can actually stop and look around, appreciate the beauty of what surrounds you, the uniqueness of each sunrise or sunset - we only have a few left, so drink it in while you can, enjoy every moment as it presents itself.. Isn't that how our everyday life should be like?

Simply, life here is beyond awesome!

Its the weekend baby!

First actual weekend since we have been here has been great. The weather was absolutely pristine, sunshine and almost no wind. Any normal person would have been nuts not to spend atleast some of the day outside!

Saturday morning we split up into groups (since we have to have at least four people in the base at all times), so some went for a hike to Kleinkoppie, while a few others took a trip down to the smelly. The evening we had a braai and then ended the day off with a movie in the cinema.
Sunday morning a few of us went out early on to get the best of the good weather. Was beyond awesome! The rest of the afernoon was spent relaxing and pretty much just being bums.

Back to work tomorrow...