We travelled with Aurora Expeditions, on their inaugural voyage to
'Mawson's Antarctica' using the
'Marina Svetaeva', a 4575 tonne Russian ice ship built in Poland in 1989. The ship, as promised, proved 'comfortable and homely', rather than luxurious: think of a good two star hotel. But everything else was at least four star: most importantly, the expedition had excellent leaders, staff and guest lecturers. It also was equipped with a fleet of zodiacs and two helicopters.
The route took us from Hobart, Australia across the Southern Ocean to
Macquarie Island (Australia); Commonwealth Bay (site of Mawson's Hut); the South Magnetic Pole; the French base at Dumont d'Urville; Cape Jules; the sub-Antarctic
Auckland Islands (New Zealand) and
Snares Islands (New Zealand); finally returning to Bluff in New Zealand. Overall, the trip lasted 25 days.
For me, the highlight of the trip was visiting Mawson's hut. For my wife, it was the novelty of walking on thick sea ice.
As I said earlier, times have changed since my first trip: Mawson and the other Australian stations have since been extensively rebuilt and can be seen on the Australian Antarctic Division website. But the Antarctic remains the same: still challenging, always fascinating, usually spectacular.
So, were my recollections from way back even vaguely accurate? A little hard to say, because we had little but good weather for our trip and, because it was in summer, we did not experience the winter cold. But, from time to time, the katabatic winds still roared down from the plateau, just as they did at Mawson Station in 1966, and as they did for Mawson's Australian Antarctic Expedition in 1911-1913 at Commonwealth Bay
"The Home of the Blizzard". And the Southern Ocean still unsettled a few people.
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