The New ÜWI Team at the Neumayer Station III Checking In
A first and friendly hello to our readers out there!
This is the new ÜWI team at the Neumayer Station III checking in! The past ÜWIs have said their goodbyes and left in a way that will be hard to top. And that’s not the only case where we have big shoes to fill – another is continuing this blog.
It’s a funny feeling to be on the “other side” for a change and write an entry for AtkaXpress, since we ourselves have been following the blog avidly from home for the past several months.
It’s been two months since we came here – though admittedly, we couldn’t quite believe it. Antarctica, they said. No problem, we said. But we didn’t really know what it meant until the first time we set foot on the snow and the ice below it, with endless white expanses every way we looked. Where else in the world can you see so far? Or walk so far in any direction you choose and see nothing but the same white ice? Unbelievable!
But maybe I should back up and start from the beginning:
After five days of voluntary quarantine, we left Bremen, northward bound: in this season, all flights to Neumayer have to go over Norway’s Troll Station. Accordingly, our joint flight with the Norwegian Polar Institute departed from Oslo.
After reaching Prague and refuelling in N’Djamena, Chad, we flew to South Africa, where bad weather forced us to stay for two nights, maintaining quarantine in hotel rooms. How did the old ÜWIs put it in their last blog entry? “In Antarctica, the weather always calls the shots.” But we put the time, and above all the WIFI, to good use – for instance, to download podcasts or music, to take care of any last-minute banking, and of course to make video calls with friends and family. Then it was finally time for our 6-hour flight to Norway’s Troll Station. The temperature was turned down in the plane shortly before landing, so that we could put on our red polar overalls (and start acclimating). Curious, full of suspense and decked out in full polar gear (which in retrospect was a bit over the top), we caught our first glimpses of the first small icebergs in the Southern Ocean below, the rapidly approaching ice-shelf edge, and soon after, the hills and the airstrip at Troll.
A brief snack with fellow travellers waiting on their outbound flight, then it was time to hop in the noisy Basler BT-67 “Polar 5” bound for Neumayer.
Our flight took 1.5 hours, and the suspense grew. We kept looking out the little square windows the whole time, and every few minutes one of us was sure they’d just caught a glimpse of Neumayer in the distance, until it finally – and at an unexpectedly tilted angle – appeared below us.
The station that we would call home for the next 14 months stood surrounded by white expanses on all sides, looking absolutely surreal. Almost before we were ready, our skids hit the ground and we somewhat reluctantly got off board. Though it was now midnight, there were still plenty of people there in the same red overalls as us, who gave us a warm welcome (though of course observing social distancing because of COVID). Our gear was soon loaded onto a sledge and then we started trudging up the hill to the station, which loomed much larger above us than we had imagined.
Neumayer III welcomed us with plenty of warmth and the smell of tasty pizza. We were shown our rooms, and soon after we crawled into our bunk beds, exhausted from the trip and all the excitement.
Over the next few days, wearing masks and observing social distancing, we were integrated into life at the station. Each of us tagged along with our respective predecessor, so that we could learn what we needed to as quickly as possible. And there was plenty to learn: safety regulations, how the observatories run, the best chill-out spots, how to ride/drive the Skidoos and snowcats, laundry, sea-ice measurements, rules for the kitchen and freezers, and much more. From time to time, we’d run into each other in the hallway and we all felt a bit overwhelmed. But in the evenings, we’d get together and exchange notes on everything that had happened that day, what was next, and what was on the agenda.
After a lovely Christmas celebration and ringing in the New Year, in early January the Polarstern dropped anchor on our “north shore”.
The ship brought with her not just a treasure trove of provisions and replacement parts, but also aviation fuel for all the air traffic at Neumayer. After all, for many flyers in Dronning Maud Land, the Neumayer Station is an important hub, both for research flights and transit flights. We were overjoyed when, amid all the cargo, we spied our longed-for ÜWI boxes, which we had packed 3 months earlier in Bremerhaven largely without a clue … after all, what do you pack when you know you’ll be overwintering in the Antarctic for an entire year?
Before we knew it, it was time for the station handover. Were we actually ready to assume responsibility for the station and observatories? We shared some glances that signalled: we’ll manage just fine – hand in hand!
This was followed – thanks to the weather, of course – by the old ÜWIs’ last-minute departure. Any questions still unanswered would have to be settled “remotely” via Messenger, but for the time being, the nine of them were free to begin their well-deserved holiday.
You’ll be hearing from us again soon; we’ve got plenty to tell you!
Until then,
Your 43rd ÜWI team
