I’ve embarked trip of a lifetime. I’m going to ANTARCTICA!

I’ll be working here..

And doing this…

And this..

My job will be Station Support Assistant, at Rothera research station.

That’s here!

67 degrees South

…Here!

I departed Heathrow on 20th January and flew via São Paulo to Santiago, then on to Punta Arenas. From there, when the conditions are favourable, we will be taken by twin otter even further SOUTH (67.5 degrees south!)

My preparations may not be what you assume..

In September I attended Pre Deployment Training in Cambridge. Everyone who is heading south with BAS (to all the different stations, that’s Rothera, Halley, Bird Island, Signy and King Edward Point) had a big week of inductions. We stayed here..

We had a fancy welcome dinner on the Sunday evening, a sort of welcome to freshers week vibe. Monday morning we were welcomed to BAS offices for a week of presentations which covered everything from chemical safety, mental health, how to pee in Antarctica and what to expect from Station life (spoiler: Eurovision parties)

Just being in the office felt a little bit epic. The halls were filled with the incredible research polar scientists have conducted. And at 4pm each day they stayed on theme and brought out the ice creams.

Each evening we socialised, there was a pub quiz, a ceilidh or a bbq. It was a big week of meeting some inspiring people!

On Saturday, we were bundled off to do our Sea survival skills training, a necessary certificate for travelling by ship, which I will be lucky enough to do on my return journey from Antarctica to the Falkland Islands.

The training involved getting in immersion suits, navigating ourselves into life-rafts and practicing the life saving huddle. Did you know, if you find yourself shipwrecked and in a life raft, your rations of water are 500ml a day to stop you needing to pee!

In November, I returned for advanced first aid. This is not my strongest suit, and true to form I was the first and only fainter of the course, but I left massively empowered to embrace situations which hopefully never occur, beyond the reaches of an ambulance.

Some of my preparations have been a little more tenuous..

I am completing a woodworking course at the Bristol Women’s Workshop to get some basic skills with which to enter the carpentry shed!

I have revised my crochet skills and packed my watercolours to prepare for every craft eventuality!

And I’m really hoping to initiate a game of capture the flag – Antarctica edition!

And all the while I’ve been preparing myself, I’ve also been preparing my nephew Ted, in the hope he will either miss me, or think it’s unbelievably cool that I’ll be hanging out with penguins.. His indoctrination has included books, plays and a giant game of pin the beak on the penguin!

I can’t wait to report on what those pesky penguins are up to, and what savvy scientists are working on! I’ll keep you posted!