A short film depicted in a horror theme of expeditions members
leaving the station who does not return and assumed to be lost. The remaining team members mourn their lose, after which the ghosts from the lost members return to base as if they’ve never been lost. The creepy events that occur around the station frightens the remaining members causing them to run out of fear leaving the station.

The overwintering expedition team members at SANAE IV participated in the annual Winter International Film Festival for Antarctica, WIFFA.

Also commonly known as the 48 hour film festival. Each year research stations from all over Antarctica partake in this joyful event making a short film with a story line of their choice and expedition members show casing their acting skills. This year, 15 countries representing 25 stations have entered the festival. Making it a big group of entrants this year. So nothing professional really, just for the fun of it.

Each station gets only 48 hours to shoot and compile their film, where they must include five random items. This year the items were chosen by different stations at random. The five items that needs to be part of the film is a sound, an object, famous quote, a famous character and an action chosen by a random station.

These items were as follow:

– Sound : Duck quack

– Object: Dumbbell

– Famous quote: It was the best of time, it was the worst of time. Charles Dickens

– Famous Character: Mickey Mouse

– Action : Piggyback race

During a snow storm, the S62 team came together with many ideas and excitement to start filming the various scenes. We managed to get most of the scenes done as planned and with the amount of time available. Open the link below to view our film and films from the other stations.

https://www.wiffa.aq/en/film/1068

Happy viewing!!! More about the film festival is available at; http://www.wiffa.aq

In Antarctica, we can observe the southern lights known as the aurora australis. These brilliant natural phenomena are seen during the night sky. At SANAE IV research base, it is one of the most incredible phenomena to witness when overwintering.

The South African National Space Agency (SANSA) hosts a number of space weather and space physics instruments at SANAE IV. Some of these instruments can pick up solar activity which in turn causes the auroras. An aurora occurs when the Sun is very active, with Sunspots erupting with enormous energy bursts known as solar flares caused by coronal mass ejections (CME).
These solar flares release huge amounts of energy following a very complex mechanism where particles are accelerated to large speeds due to the interaction of the magnetic field.

Some of these high energy particles will hit the Earth’s magnetic field, following the magnetic field lines down into the Earth’s atmosphere at the magnetic poles. When these solar particles collide with oxygen, they produce red or green light, and when the particles collide with nitrogen, they produce green and purple lights.

Read more about the auroras and other exciting science in the second edition of The Nunatak.

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The Nunatak: Introducing the SANAE 62 newsletter, giving a glimpse into the life of an overwintering expeditioner at the South African National Antarctic Expedition research base.
The overwintering team consists of nine individuals in various roles, where they’ll be introducing themselves in this first edition of The Nunatak. We are the 62nd overwintering team for SANAE.

This year the dedicated team of previous expeditioners and newcomers will make the experience so much more memorable. The energy and overall high spirit of the team for their work and working as a team is exceptional.
Why the name The Nunatak? Well, a nunatak is …

Read more in The Nunatak, download it below:

It has been around three months since being stationed in Antarctica at SANAE IV. A team of nine people living on the ice, with the research base found at Vesleskarvet a nunatak surrounded by pure white snow and ice. A nunatak is basically a ridge of a mountain protruding an icy landscape.

Our team consists of various technical people to support the maintenance and continuous running of the crucial equipment at base, whether it’s for water supply, heating and electricity. All the team members are responsible for shovelling snow into the snow smelter, the smelly as it’s known here at SANAE. Our water for general use, showering and cooking comes from the melted snow. How is this achieved? The smelly consists of two big steel tanks under the ice with access hatches above, and in between a pump room with heater elements to melt the incoming snow where it is then pumped up to the base. The access hatches in where the snow enters by shovel. It is a very exhausting exercise to shovel snow to be able to open the hatches and then to fill the tanks. So we make use of a bull dozer to assist with heaps of snow that can then be pushed into the open hatches.

SANAE IV base is powered by three continuously running Scania diesel generators, that are synchronised to load share when demand is required for water pumping, heating etc. These beauties are the responsibility of the diesel mechanic and the electro-mechanical technician to service and maintain them for optimal performance.

Our waste management is under the control of the instrumentation technician, where bacteria is used to breakdown waste. The toilet system works in the same way as found on the research vessel and in aeroplanes, by means of a vacuum flushing plant.

Each room on base has under floor heating, which helps a lot during the cold winter months. Well, we’ll still experience the dark coldness awaiting us. There is a virtual walk through available on the SANAP website, follow this link to load the 360 virtual tour: http://www.sanap.ac.za

Exciting morning of the 26th December at the Antarctic ice shelf. Everyone was up early that morning, eager for the helicopters to start up. We could only start the helicopter operations once the weather cleared up from the morning overcast and dark clouds on the horizon. Soon enough the skies did open for the first flight to the ice shelf for inspection of the shelf’s condition and to make sure it’s structurally sound. All in fair condition for the commencement of the off loading on the ice shelf with the ship’s crane. The second flight, with a very enthusiastic science team and brave pilots, they were set off to the penguin colonies for aerial monitoring.

Then with more waiting and anticipation, the first flight to SANAE IV base was set for take off. Captain Waldo from the Ultimate Heli group as the main pilot with eight passengers from the Departmental Officer to Project leads and then myself as the acting overwintering team leader and SANSA group leader. Must say, I was a bit nervous for the flight. It’s my first long flight in a helicopter, need to say over ice. Pure white all around. The flight was roughly 45 minutes, although within the first 15 minutes I started to fall asleep from the rattle of the helicopter. It was actually very soothing. There is not much to see from so far up high, everything is covered in snow and ice. Just blinding white landscape bellow, with a few clouds drifting bellow the helicopter.

From a far, in between the misty clouds a small cliff started to appear. With the helicopter’s blades creating a force of wind opening the clouds, there it was, our new home for the next year. SANAE IV research base. It felt surreal finally seeing the famous South African Antarctic base that I’ve seen so many times on social media and in the news.

It was really cold. The first breath of pure Antarctic air filled my lung with a cold sensation that I’ve never felt, humbling feeling and joy. I stood back from the helicopter and watched it take off, almost immediately back to the ship. I knew that was the last time that I’ll be in that helicopter until 2024.

Small hinges open big doors. And this, this is a new adventure. SANAE IV Takeover will be a very busy time for us, the SANSA engineers. A glimpse into our work for this relief period in the next post.

The sea spotted with pancake ice floating around with brilliant white, almost blinding. Cold wind in your face, cheeks burning instantly and turning pink. The beard does help a fair bit, but still jaw shivering cold.

Now entering the 60’s of the Southern ocean. Early morning after breakfast, I headed out to join the nature scientists on the monkey deck, where they do their daily observations for various wild life from birds, seals and whales. The birds, I’ve experienced on Marion Island but they are still ever so more interesting to see and observe. The seals on the other hand, they are my favourite at the moment. We spotted a number of different seal species thus far, from the southern elephant seal to an incredibly beautiful leopard seal laying on the ice.

The scientist are mainly on the look out for Ross seal which they will be studying and working with on this voyage. Hopefully I’ll be able to witness the first capture and study, before we are off-loaded onto the ice shelf. Another wildlife, include some whales from afar like the Sei whale, Mink whale, Hump back whale and possibly a Blue whale.

Our new ETA to reach the ice shelf is the morning of Christmas. A white Christmas that I won’t forget!

The Antarctic expedition currently on the 6^th day of the voyage to the ice continent. We are roughly at 58° South with surprising calm waters, breezing through the roaring 40’s and furious 50’s. Off to the continent with it’s own heart beat as the ice breaks away from the continent with new ice forming, the ebb and flow of the surrounding ice sheets.

During these last few days, we’ve had plenty of exciting things happen and experiences. As the first priority, safety, the whole ship including the passengers and crew members had to do the emergency drill in case of an evacuation. In total we are 134 people on the voyage. The drill basically consist of sirens being sounds at a deafening pitch. Then each deck is assigned to a curtain assembly point of the vessel depending on which side of the vessel your cabin is located, Star Board side or Port Side. Roll-call and other safety procedures in-between.

Now that all the cargo have been loaded and everyone eager to get sailing, the captain made hast over the next few days.

We’ve experienced interesting science aboard the vessel, one being the retrieval of a glider for oceanography studies being run by the British Antarctic Survey/CSIR group onboard. Some of the passengers have been tasked to spot the glider that has been out at sea for roughly nine month collecting data by diving to depts received from communication through satellite telemetry. Upon retrieval of the glider with the assistance of the vessel’s crew with the onboard crane and net, we all went down to be amazed by this glider and the team working on the project. Not too long, the BAS group were ready to deploy the new glider setup for quick deployment and direct communication with the satellite for live data retrieval and observation. There is so much to see and learn on these types of voyages, and the pure passion people have for their work is absolutely amazing. Science just gets me going!

The cold winds creeping in and the sky disappearing under the mist, as if the breath of Poseidon resting calming guiding our voyage. We were amazed at the first ice burg spotted in the distance, although knowing that there will be tons of ice around within the next four to five days. This single ice burg was truly something surreal, from a movie scene or those mesmerizing documentaries, a behemoth standing proud and strong in the waters. Just imagen the shear size of it below the water, apparently the blue ice seen in these ice burgs are due to the pressure being exerted on the ice.

We are heading into the 60’s of the South with even colder winds sailing at a lower speed of approximately 8 knots, in the event we encounter that Titanic ice burg. Not to worry, we all have trust in the Captain and the Ice Captain, along with the vessels ice breaking ability. I’m still amazed at the engineering that went into this vessel.

The next way-point will be the Ice Shelf. The massive wall of ice where we will be off-loaded by crane onto the shelf. But first, we need to break through the ice sheets to get there. The ice sheets, pack ice varies in depth from 1-m to 5-m depths. The vessel is capable of breaking through 5-m thick ice, although the Captains would choose the best route for smooth sailing. Fingers crossed, we don’t get stuck in the ice pack. Although it would be something to experience and thrilling at the same time. This has happen quite a few times with previous voyages down South. The Ice Captain is experienced in this regard and will be able to get the vessel loose and out of the ice. I really do take off my hat for Shackleton and his team for braving such an expedition with the technology they had, in a wooden ship.

Departure day! Starting off with a fairly clear sky this morning, and calm waters with cape fur seals enjoying the early morning catch, swirling around in the water, with the weather turning to some overcast, mist and a bit of rain to tease. We are officially set to depart the East Pier off to immigration. Cargo loading completed and helicopters onboard, refuelling and with 89 passengers onboard and overwhelming excitement. The SANAE IV 62 expedition is on route to the ice continent! Bon Voyage!

Loads of interesting science to be done along the way, on the ice and at the research base. From sea bird observations, Ross seal tagging and monitoring to water studies and vibration analysis from various research entities.