AntarcticDoctor

I’m not a superstitious person, or overly religious, but the longer I live the more I begin to believe in serendipity. Today is auspicious for many reasons – it is Good Friday to Christians, falling this year on South Africa’s Human Rights Day, and it is particularly special to us in Antarctica as it is the autumn equinox – a milestone in our year on the ice.   This equinox coincides with a beautiful full moon, and we have been further blessed by open skies and no wind.  Imagine out joy, then when the final gift arrived – a lovely aurora.  This one formed several bands over the south-eastern horizon, and was remarkably active, with rapidly shifting green veils.  At times, a red hue was visible in the lower reaches.  The full moon certainly prevented us from seeing the full splendour of the aurora, but it highlighted the landscape – while the base basked in the cool light of the moon, we watched the glowing southern lights over our familiar southern peaks… serendipity indeed.

For those in South Africa – you may want to make a date to catch Carte Blanche on M-Net this Sunday (23 March), as they will be airing a short segment on SANAE, using footage shot by the Fosters during the summer season (see the link to the International Polar Year Documentary).  I’m not sure of the content, but the imagery captured by the Fosters is stunning, so it’ll be worth watching.  Yours truly appears a few times in the film, so if you’re unlucky I might make an appearance… *grin*.  In any case, this is a prime opportunity to see something of Antarctica, and you’ll have a sneak preview of the film, scheduled to be released next month.

For the international readership – I’m trying to arrange a copy that I can make available here on AntarcticDoctor, so watch this space.

I’ve been wrestling for some time to get an uber-cool photo gallery to work on the blog, but have run into many snags. Not willing to give up, I now bring my own gallery online. Click the link to the right to go through to the gallery page. There’s lots there, including:

• Plenty of as-yet-unseen images of the voyage down, including characters aboard the ship, Bouvet Island and the pack ice (pictures of penguins and seals to follow soon, by popular demand)
• For the medics, some pictures of the hospital and theatre aboard the SA Agulhas
• More mugshots of the team
• More images from the base and surrounds

I’ll be adding content over the next few days, so pop in whenever you have a chance.