Dean's Antarctic Adventure: Antarctica on Australia day 2013 (by Air)

Antarctica on Australia Day 2013 via Qantas

Happy Australia day!!! and what an awesome day it was!

Susan Bradford and myself (Tania) headed down on the Croydon Antarctica Flights with Qantas to check out where the boys were working at Casey Station. Mark is also a Plumber on Casey Station (working with Dean Murray) and will be doing a 12 month stint and has newly arrived on Boxing Day via the ship. It was very exciting to hear the boys voices over the intercom radio of the Boeing 747 speakers as we circled over Casey Station about 3 times ensuring everyone got a view of the brightly coloured buildings and the surrounding lakes. The whole vibe of the cabin was electric and we felt like celebrities as we squealed with delight in hearing our names over the intercom and then were inundated with so many peoples stories and questions about their work. Living in Dampier, WA, I was amazed at the amount of other "pilbara-ites" on the plane and how so many paths had been crossed unknowingly. The great thing about this flight is that you are free to move around the cabin as much as you like and the feeling was relaxed and friendly. There was much excitement onboard as after approximately 4 hours of flying directly south of Perth we could start to see the first of many massive icebergs bobbing around in the ocean. The two commentators were extremely knowlegeable and had 15 to 20 years of experience each of this beautiful region which made the trip even more enjoyable. In short - we saw many glaciers, a small volcano, old remains of Russian stations and old airstrips, a giant hunk of ice falling off a massive cliff face and then seeing the waves being dispersed, Casey Station very clearly and the most beautiful blue coloured waters (that I wished I could dip a paintbrush into and paint straight onto a canvas!). We spent approx 4 hours flying all over Antarctica and then it took another 4 hours to come home again. It was a magnificent trip and I would recommend it to anyone as it is truly amazing.

So it was nice to sort of spend Australia Day with Dean, even though he was below on the ice and I was flying half way to heaven!