A Brief Round-up

OK I have been a little slack about posting lately, so following is a bit of a round up of my activities of the last week or so.

With the recent blizzard dumping quite a bit of snow around the place, the diesos decided it was time to get the skidoos out for a test and service. There was no shortage of willing volunteers for the job. The skidoos are a bit faster than the quads - especially over snow - but are a bit of a handful when it comes to turning them. Still very good fun though.

The increased snow around station has made it a bit more difficult for some vehicles though. I took one of the utes down to the beach to pass on a message and realised on the way down that I had no chance of getting back up. I gave it a go though, getting bogged on my second attempt about half way up the hill. I went to get the JCB to pull it out and found Trev on the way so I enlisted his help to extract the vehicle. His only condition was that I pose with the ute before he helped me, so we can all thank Trev for this photo!

Last Sunday Annette and I headed out to Deep Lake for a day trip to measure the depth of the lake. Deep Lake lies about 9km WNW of Davis in the Vestfold hills at an altitude 50m below sea level. It is about eight times saltier than sea water and therefore has such a low freezing point that no ice forms on it over winter. A depth gauge pole in the lake is inspected once per month. The depth of Deep Lake has been monitored continuously for several decades, and scientists now have an excellent record that allows study of snowfall vs evaporation rates during the year, as well as longer term local climate change. We had a fantastic day weather-wise with no wind and no clouds. The water surface was as smooth as glass (till someone couldn't help herself and threw a heap of snow into the water sending ripples off across the lake).

On Friday, Matt and I headed off north of the station to test and tag the fire extinguishers in the field huts. With the Hagg loaded the day before we set off just after 0830. The first stop was Rookery Lake Apple, followed by Bandits Hut. Then it was up onto the plateau to go to the Davis skiway, officially known as Woop Woop. At this time of year the Davis domestic terminal isn't quite a thriving airport, but that definitely changes during the summer.

Woop Woop consists of two building, the living van with four bunks (left) and the workshop.

After Woop Woop it was back down to Platcha Hut, then Ace Lake Apple and finally Brookes Hut. We were only at each hut for about 10 minutes, and only stopped briefly for lunch between Woop Woop and Platcha and got back to Davis just before 1700. Quite a big day of driving around in a noisy, rough Hagg - but it sure beat working!

Looking back over the Vestfold Hills from the plateau, in the direction of Davis