In our last report, it was mentioned that all the containers had been recovered from Breid Bay and that the camp site was slowly filling up with equipment. The building team is preparing the Utsteinen Ridge for the station's anchoring points and making progress on constructing the wind turbines.

Over the past few days, the sun has continued to shine, raising temperatures above zero degrees around mid-day. However, at night, it quickly turns cold. A couple of nights ago, they had the coldest night so far: -16°C. But no one complains, given their warm and protective sleeping bags!

On top of the ridge, the wind chill factor makes it feel even colder, so it is necessary for the workers to wear a heavy jacket and gloves to avoid getting fostbitten. Members from the drilling company have removed loose rocks and cleared the points where they intend to anchor the polar station. They will start to drill as soon as the rest of their drilling equipment arrives on site in just a few days. Defining the exact position of the station requires very precise calculations and needs to take into consideration the topography of the ridge. To do this, the drilling specialists are using a large number of computers and other measuring devices, which seem to be taking up quite a lot of space in the office of the expedition's headquarters.

The team working on the wind turbines has made good progress. Holes have been drilled where the first turbine will be placed and they have begun fixing the steel bars that will anchor the turbines with special resin that must be heated for 48 hours before they can be installed. As a reminder, six containers containing enough carpentry for the crew to get a head start on the garage were left behind last year. An area measuring 80 x 80 metres has been cleared next to the ridge (see picture) where the garage is to be built.

As of today, Nov. 15th, four more team members will fly in from Novolazarevskaia with 4,500 kg of food as well as more base camp materials and building equipment. Building a new polar station takes a lot of organisation!

A first report was received from Alain Hubert and the building team in Antarctica. Twenty-one people are now on site, working away on the wind turbines and getting started on the station's anchoring points.

Alain Hubert and 8 other people left Cape Town on November 2nd, destination Russian station Novolazarevskaia. From there, they boarded a Basler flight (DC-3 plane) heading for Utsteinen. They landed just 3 kilometres from the construction site and walked the remainder of the way. Their first 36 hours on site were devoted to setting up camp and restoring stored equipment. Riding the Prinoth tractors, Alain Hubert and Philippe Van Den Broeck drove to the coast a first time to fetch wood and fuel that had been stored in a container in Breid Bay during BELARE 2006-2007. On the way, the Hammar side loader sledge got stuck in a small crevasse. A rescue operation is scheduled today (the 12th of November).

After a second trip to the coast, Alain Hubert confirms that the snow route prepared last year is very good, shortening the trip between Utsteinen and Breid Bay by 5 hours! It now only takes 15 hours to travel the approximate 190 km, versus 20 hours before the circuit existed.

The weather is splendid in Utsteinen (21 degrees Celsius in the sun) while the rest of Antarctica is being swept by heavy winds. So much so that the flight scheduled to leave Cape Town on the 7th was delayed until the next day. With twelve new people now on site, the workers number twenty-one. The heavy drilling material has been held in customs in Cape Town and won't be released before November 18th. Work has nonetheless begun on the wind turbines and on preparing the building's site (anchoring points for the station).

The moment has finally come for all to say farewell to the Belgian polar station. The Ivan Papanin, a Russian ice class cargo ship, left the port of Antwerp on November 6th, 2 pm.

The moment has finally come for all to say goodbye to the Belgian polar station. The Ivan Papanin, a Russian ice class cargo ship, left the port of Antwerp on November 6th, 2 pm.

A press conference was held on the port's pier by project manager Johan Berte and Defence coordinator Philippe Herman. A tour of the ship was then offered to the press, a chance to see where the ship crew and passengers are to spend their evenings and nights until arrival in Breid Bay around mid-December.

Carrying 106 containers of equipment and station elements, the Ivan Papanin will stop over in Cape Town for refuelling at the end of the month of November. After a first stop for equipment drop-off at the Norwegian station, Troll, the ship will end up in Breid Bay, where the station's containers will finally be disembarked.

In total, the team is composed of 57 members (including the ship crew), spread out over 9 departures. Members of the Belgian Defence will meet the ship in South Africa, from where they will pursue their trip by boat.

Over all, the Defence has been a tremendous help to the International Polar Foundation. They provided logistical support during the September inauguration of the station in Brussels and allowed the containers to be transported to Antwerp. Their technical assistance and lent equipment were also greatly appreciated. Their services will also be called upon for the transmission of satellite images, indispensable for portraying the state of the sea ice and for advancing within the dangerous Antarctic terrain.

Alain Hubert has just published his fifth book, entitled "L'Appel des glaces". Inspired by his latest expedition, "The Arctic Arc", Alain Hubert tells the story of his trip through a mix of prose, poetic phrases and beautiful pictures.

The book, available for the moment in French only, is 160 pages long and includes 137 photographs and illustrations. Not only will the reader see how "The Arctic Arc" fits in as a project for society, he will also be keyed in to Alain Hubert's various activities in collaboration with the International Polar Foundation (Polaris observatory for climate change, Princess Elisabeth Antarctica station, etc.). The book is due to be released in Dutch at the beginning of November, and may be translated into English later on.

A press conference was held just before Alain Hubert's departure for Antarctica, in the prestigious office of the expedition's principal sponsor "Rolex". Alain Hubert has already left for the southern hemisphere, to set up the BELARE (Belgian Antarctic Research Expedition) 2007 expedition which is due to begin construction of the Princess Elisabeth Station this upcoming austral summer.

This book offers a wonderful opportunity to learn recent information about the Arctic sea ice, be introduced to polar jargon and discover the poetry of the Polar Regions. Not only does the language and tone of the book suit young teenagers who are interested in the northern latitudes, it provides inspiration and hope to anyone who adheres to the values of sustainable development that IPF aims to convey.

Wednesday October 24th, the 80 containers carrying the Princess Elisabeth Station were loaded on to the Icelandic Samskip barge at the Port of Brussels. Under a polar wind blowing in from the North, a faithful public watched as the last containers left Brussels.

Organized by the Port of Brussels, a press conference was held in presence of Mrs. Laurence Bovy, President of the Port, Mrs. Brigitte Grouwels, Secretary of State in charge of the Port of Brussels, Mr. Pierre Guerin, CEO of the Compagnie Française de Navigation Rhénane (CFNR) and Mr. Thierry Touchais, Executive Director of IPF.

Through its activity, the Port of Brussels reduces the amount of carbon dioxide emissions in the capital of Belgium by roughly 90,000 tons annually. Practically, one barge is capable of replacing 80 road trucks. There is no doubt that sea and rivers represent an interesting alternative to roads and air routes. The transport sphere currently accounts for one of the four sectors (i.e. domestic, industry, agriculture and transport) releasing the most Greenhouse Gas in the world. It appears evident that ameliorations in this sector are to be encouraged and privileged.

Mr. Pierre Guerin explained and stressed that river freight is a conscious decision, based on political priorities. Choosing fluvial over road transport has proven to be advantageous given several situations:

• congestion at port terminals when loading and unloading containers,
• road congestion between Antwerp and Brussels
• clients wanting to keep an eye on their containers
• politicians wanting to take concrete action towards solving the general problem of obstruction

In line with IPF's objective of sustainability for the Princess Elisabeth Antarctic project, the containers are thus being sent by barges to Antwerp, and then from there to Antarctica aboard the Russian ice-class cargo ship named IVAN PAPANIN. As Thierry Touchais so rightly reminded us in his speech, climate change is above all a problem linked to energy use and production. "The alternative that river transport offers to road freight is highly relevant if we wish to reduce the contribution of this sector [transport] to Greenhouse Gas Emissions."

Over the 5-day period during which DAMOCLES was exhibited at ESRIN/ESA, more than 500 people visited the exhibition. DAMOCLES is now getting ready for its next stop: the Snow & Ice Sculpture Festival in Bruges, Belgium.

Hosted at the European Researcher's Night as a contribution of ESRIN/ESA to the yearly event, about 400 external visitors and 150 ESRIN employees attended the exhibition between September 28th and October 4th 2007. The European Researcher's Night, organized by the European Commission, aims to promote the role and importance of European scientific research and applications among the general public and younger generations.

DAMOCLES fulfilled its role. It is now time to move on to its next venue in Bruges, where it will be mounted from 23rd November 2007 until 13th January 2008. So, let's all head this way!

The IPF's educational team brings the effects of climate change alive in class rooms throughout Wallonia. Sponsored by the Belgian Region of Wallonia, 40 classroom sessions have been scheduled during October and November. All sessions were booked in no time and children have responded very positively to the first ones, raising interesting questions and complementary remarks.

Directed towards children aged 10 to 14, these educational sessions of about 2 hours use games and interactive learning processes to introduce polar regions, global warming and the future effects of a changing climate.

A conventional session is divided into three periods:

• Introduction on the IPF and its activities;
• Presentation of both Polar Regions, their specificities and their importance in understanding global climate history;
• Introduction to the effects of climate change in our own country: Belgium.

A Biodiversity CD-Rom

These activities actually put into practice the various subjects that the future "Biodiversity and Climate Change" CD-Rom will enter upon.

This "Biodiversity and Climate Change" CD-Rom is expected to be released at the end of October and will comprise of 15 themes, covered using animations and teaching dossiers.

As usual, all flash animations will be made available on the EducaPoles website and teaching dossiers will be proposed for download.

On request from the IPF, the Norwegian Polar Institute office in Longyearbyen kindly organised a field training course for some of the BELARE 2007-2008 team at the beginning of October 2007.

The training was initially meant to take place on the Nordeskiodbreen but had to be moved to a glacier closer to Longyearbyen due to bad weather.

Longyearbyen is a very international place and home to many different nationalities. The Svalbard Treaty of 1920 established that Norway would be the country to govern the islands. However, a provision included in the Treaty allows nationals from all other countries the freedom of movement and establishment in these northermost towns. During their stay, the BELARE team was continuously reminded of this fact. The instructors included a Dane and an Englishman, and the camp cook and assistant were from Germany and Finland respectively. The UNIS campus where they had their "classroom" sessions was also home to students from all over the world.

Our course began in the classroom with a talk on extreme environment medicine given by Dr Ole Tveiten from Longyearbyen's Sikkenhus (including when to cut off fingers or toes with gangrene and when to wait). We discovered the do's and don'ts of crevasse rescue techniques - an ABC procedure to follow - how to treat wounds, bleedings, burns, fractures, hypothermia, frostbites, infections, head and spinal injuries.

Armed with this knowledge the team proceeded to learn rope techniques under the solid guidance of Jens and Harvey.

"The wilderness gapes all around us, as the snow begins to obliterate all vestiges of any optical contrast to guide us. So we follow meekly behind our rifle toting guides as they move sure-footed out into the crevasse zones. We rope up. Nothing happens. A few hours and no major drama or loss of personnel later, we arrive at the lip of the crevasse and timidly peek over, making sure to have all safety ropes and then some, secured. The ice screws are in. The harnesses jingle and clank as we flaunt our Petzl ware and over we go, abseiling into the bottomless pits. Well, not exactly. I don't think our psyches would have been able to deal with bottomless on the first try, so we settle for a decent little crevasse."

The team camped in an area called Bjorndal or "Bear Valley" and although they were continuously reminded of the presence of bears, they saw little trace of them. Several days of this and the team is ready for their very own SAR (search and rescue exercise), with the Governor's helicopter thrown in for good measure. The whole thing works like a charm. They even had fake reporters asking embarrassing questions. It was very authentic.

A great dinner around a log fire and a vist to the Svalbard Museum, and before they had time to realize what was happening, the BELARE team had been shoved back on the army jet and was winging its way back to Melsbroek.

"Antarctica here we come."

The dismantling team of Princess Elisabeth Station in Brussels did not waste any time. As of Monday September 10th, around 25 workers were already on site to help bring down the station.

In view of its ultimate Antarctic construction, the pre-mounting of the Princess Elisabeth Station in Brussels was a significant procedure in detecting plausible building problems. The Station was then open during 4 consecutive days, an event which did not go unnoticed amongst the general public. During its public opening, 40.000 people came to visit the station.

The crowd and participants have now cleared the Tour & Taxis site, leaving the dismantling team room to proceed in Princess Elisabeth's disassembly. A call for volunteers has been released in order to meet the schedule, being that the site has to be emptied by the end of September.

Simultaneously to its dismantling, the Station has to be carefully loaded into transport containers. In order to spread out the convoy, containers are being sentaweekly to a hangar in Antwerp where they are stored until departure date early October. A total of 100 containers will be required for the station's packing.

The next step for Princess Elisabeth Antarctica will be the loading of the containers on the DROMSHIP (Dronning Maud Land Ship network) and its departure from Antwerp.

The Princess Elisabeth Station was inaugurated by Prince Philip on September 5th after an international press conference held at Tour & Taxis in Brussels. Belgium's new Antarctic research station was conceived and built by the International Polar Foundation with the help of its financial and technical partners.

The public that turned out for the ceremony watched Prince Philippe and Alain Hubert, general supervisor of the project and co-founder of the International Polar Foundation, cross the station's doorstep. After the Prince had toured the interior of the station, he was offered a piece of the delicious cake shaped in the form of the Princess Elisabeth Station and prepared by the famous Belgian baker Wittamer. The Prince minted the first of a series in 10 € coins commemorating the Princess Elisabeth, then visited the various expositions and partner stands in front of the station.

The inauguration ceremony was a fantastic success, attended by over 200 journalists and 2000 guests. An estimated forty thousand visitors came to see the station during the following four days, touring the station's site and viewing its adjacent expositions.

Workers have already begun dismantling the Princess Elisabeth Station at Tour & Taxis. The pieces of the station need first to be evacuated from the site before being carefully loaded into containers. They will then be transported to the Belgian port of Antwerp where they will be loaded onto a vessel from the DROMSHIP (Dronning Maud Land Ship) network. The DROMSHIP will leave Antwerp early November, carrying the station's 100 containers (20 ft. long each).