international
polar
foundation

Seventeen new team members arrived on site yesterday, Sunday January 6th. The building of the station starts today.

The Utsteinen crew had a costume party on New Year's Eve. Everyone took part in the fun.

Stéphane Dubois, building coordinator for the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Station, returned to Belgium earlier than foreseen. Mr. Dubois, an inhabitant of the Rochefort region, was supposed to stay in Antarctica until March 9, 2008. The atmospheric conditions, particularly the extreme dryness, forced him to return prematurely: he was back in Brussels on December 21, after having spent 52 days on the white continent.

This Ivan Papanin arrived in Cape Town during the night of December 28. Unloading operations lasted through December 29. Several waste containers and a few heavy drilling pieces were brought back to Cape Town to be disposed of or stored.

Seven people left the base camp on December 27th to start the 5th traverse. Meanwhile, the rest of team is working on re-assembling the cranes and finishing the garages and the station's foundations.

The party began with, in stead of the usual hot chocolate that is served on the working grounds, warm wine from "Château Migraine" vintage.

Christmas was celebrated on the night of December 24th, close to the way it is feasted in Belgium. The coast team made it back to the base camp on time, after several hours of severe weather.

The second convoy reached Utsteinen on December 21st (7 30 pm), carrying part of the crane and frozen food to last through mid-March 2008. Strong winds and heavy snow falls are coming down on the Eastern region of Antarctica, announcing a white Christmas for the BELARE 2007-2008 team.

The coast team has now finished unloading all the containers and machines from the Ivan Papanin. Everything has been neatly arranged in rows up on the ice shelf. The ship is due to leave Crown Bay today, Friday December 21.

The first convoy of containers reached the base camp in Utsteinen today (December 19) at 5 pm. The most needed equipment was brought first, comprising of the remaining wood to complete the garage construction.