Terra Nova Bay

Day 16. Sunday 26 January - Australia Day

Terra Nova Bay – Research Stations Station; Drygalski Ice Tongue

Noon position: Latitude 74^o42.415’ South; Longitude 164^o 20.69’ East;
Air temperature: 0^oC, Water temperature: 2.4^oC

During the night the Spirit of Enderby relocated to Gerlache Inlet. The day began with a 7.30 am breakfast where two Australians proudly displayed tee-shirts with Australia’s flag as they enjoyed vegemite (from a tube) on toast. Later several sang Waltzing Matilda. Then a briefing for our first and only landing on the mainland of Antarctica continent, as against on various islands connected by ice. Terra Nova bay has been chosen for several Antarctic bases because the waters of the bay never freeze over due to a warm upwelling.  Nearby was the Korean supply ship BBC Danube and BBC Chartering whose Russian crew was delighted to be able to visit our Russian crew (and probably enjoy some better catering).

Another Australian, Richard Buxton, made a historic landing from his zodiac, re-enacting Mawson’s claim for Antarctica by planting the Australian flag, and proclaiming:

‘I hereby proclaim Buxton Land. All land one kilometre north and south of 74 degrees 42.8 minutes South Latitude, of Terra Nova Bay, together with the Low Water Mark, to Longitude 163 degrees 54 minutes East, is hereby proclaimed Buxton land, this land being ideally suited for a retirement village in 2064, when the mean average water temperature is predicted to rise to 20 degrees Celsius and the air temperature to 25 degrees Celsius owing to Global Warming. God Save the Queen!’

We walked up the hill to view Germany’s summer only Gondwana Station. This was a tidy complex first established in the 1970s with the initial hut on metal poles and beside the hut, containers and the main station building. A meteorological screen was nearby.

An easy walk over gently elevated ground of granite and gneiss rocks and finer material, all products of freeze thaw weathering processes, gave us a distant view of South Korea’s fine new Jang Bo Jo Station. This was a large complex and this year will have a winter-over party of 40. Sadly the quiet we had been enjoying was shattered when a Korean helicopter flew overhead to the ship.

  
Along the way two Emperor Penguins kindly posed for many photographs!

On top of the ridge several pairs of nesting Skuas dive bombing us to show their resentment at our intrusion.

A Weddell seal was slugging its way down the snowy slope.

Beside a seep of snowmelt the mud supported the only plants, some green slimy algae,and moss while more coloured lichen was huddling in some rock crevices.

On the ride back on the zodiac to the Spirit of Enderby, some of the bergs we passed were the most beautiful light turquoise, with one having a deep ultramarine indicating that indicated it comprised very old ice (but I had my camera underwraps while on the zodiac).

The Captain had us moving southward while we enjoyed a lunch of hot chicken curry with coleslaw and cinnamon doughnuts. After lunch we watched episodes 5 and 6 of ‘The Last Place on Earth’. By early afternoon we were well off the coast. 

Because of heavy pack ice built up against the south side of the Drygalski Ice Tongue and a light fall of snow, we only had a distant viewing of this vast floating glacier. The Drygalski Ice Tongue is nourished by the David Glacier (after the Australian Prof. Edgeworth David, who accompanied Douglas Mawson), and the mountain range behind.