The antartic summer

The antartic summer

Summer is ending at DDU station. On the antartic coast, the summer months(from november to february) are very nice. The sea-ice has thawn and we can see hundreds of big icebergs floating ashore. It's always bright in summer, and sometimes we miss night a bit. Only when the sky is cloudy at 1 oclock in the morning does it start to be a little darker..but only for a couple of hours. The temperatures aren't too extreme: around 1 or 2ºC. The highest temperature we had was 7,8ºC during a very sunny afternoon! Sometimes you can even lie on the rocks and enjoy some sunbathing while watching the Adelie penguins going for a swim or jumping out of water. You can also sit beside a huge Weddell seal having a nap before going to fish.They aren't afraid of humans so you can stay very close from them. On the early summer, when some ice-pack remains, you can go down to the emperor penguins rookery and watch already grown-up chicks flocking together in"creches", waiting for their parents to bring some food back from the ocean. A lot of bird species are nesting on the island during summer: the snow petrel, the antartic skua, the cap petrel, the antartic fulmar, the giant petrel, and of course, thousands of Adelie penguins. Everybody on the station is pretty busy, taking advantage of time when the weather is nice to do their job. Between 70 and 90 people are living on the station during summer, and the dining room is crowded at lunch and dinnertime...The ship"L'Astrolabe" makes 4 rotations between Hobart and DDU during summer: the first one at the end of october and the last one at the end of february. On February 28th, the ship brought everybody back to Australia except the 26 winterovers. Because of the formation of the sea-ice, the Astrolabe won't be able to come back till next october.