international
polar
foundation

Four new team members have reached Utsteinen Base Camp: Gaëlle, Toto, Daniel and Francis. Twenty-four people are now on site, bringing the team to a fully operational number to complete the first phase of the expedition.

On October 15th, the new BELARE (Belgian Antarctic Expedition) team gathered in Brussels for an informative meeting at the Belgian Military Hospital. BELARE 2007-2008 will build the new Belgian research station in Antarctica: Princess Elisabeth Antarctica.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.