Friday 15 January 2010

Abandoned Antarctica: Base W

Some very interesting photo's from Rachel and Kevin Fox's trip to the Antarctic. They had the oportunity to investigate one of the abandoned bases which has been left untouched for over 50 years. To see the rest of the series click here

Taken from the site:
Base W's location was its downfall. The year that the base was built turned out to be a particularly mild year in Antarctica, and the bay was very clear of ice. This however turned out to be atypical for this area. Three years later in 1959 the relief ship John Briscoe arrived at the end of the Summer with the base's supplies for the coming overwintering, and they found the bay completely impassable, filled with icebergs that not only made it impossible to unload, but also presented an urgent danger to the ship even staying in the area. The John Briscoe had to get out of there.

The ship sent word that there was no way to deliver the critical overwintering supplies, and the staff of Base W were given just one hour to pack up, make their way to the Briscoe and abandon the base.






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4 comment(s) so far, add your thoughts -->>here<<--:

Ben McFeeters said...

Wow. Some trip!

Living the dream, huh?

afootinthehills said...

Just been over to have a look. Lovely site and absolutely stunning photography.

Keith said...

Living the dream indeed !

Hi Gibson and Lynne, good to see you stopping by! Very cool set of images, they are.

Martin Rye said...

Powerful images indeed.