Butler Island, Antarctica

On Sunday Tamsin, Al (pilot), Tom (comms) and I flew out to Butler Island to check up on one of our AWS. Butler Island is on the east coast of the peninsula, pretty far south, at a latitude of 72degrees. It took about two and a half hours to fly there in a Twin Otter. The site is flat and white, as far as the eye can see in every direction. And it is very cold and very windy. It felt very Antarctic. Al the pilot landed just a few meters from the AWS and as I was walking over to it I wondered how on earth we would manage to work when it was so cold. But manage we did, as we quickly got used the environment and adapted our actions accordingly (ate more mars bars, ran around lots). Tamsin is proper hard core and doesn’t seem to notice (I like to think that this is what I’ll be like this time next year but I think it might just be because she’s from Newcastle).