tiabunna's photos with the keyword: photographs

After just 50 years, I've at last produced a picture book on my time in Antarctica in 1966/7 (we're having a 1966 expedition reunion today and tomorrow, so I'll be away for a bit). The title "YIKLA - well, usually" might seem a little unlikely, so I'll explain it. We had very limited communications while there - no voice radio contact and a personal allowance of only 150 free words/month of telegram messages (in both directions). To help with our messaging, the head office people gave us a code sheet of phrases linked to five letter words to share with families. I'm fairly sure the code word "YIKLA" was only ever used in a sardonic manner, it meant "This is the life". :-) If anyone would care to see a preview of the book (or even purchase a copy), then go to this link. I was based at Mawson, on the coast at the top of the background map. During the year, I was part of a four month survey trip some 300km inland (more or less the red line shown at the top) to help map the largely unvisited northern Prince Charles Mtns. Should you feel the need for something playing in the background, well, try this - it's in the book.

Copied from an ancient negative (1966). That's me among the Central Masson Ranges, after a climbing day a short distance inland from Mawson Station in Antarctica. The surface is blue ice and I'm leaning on VW "Antarctica 3" - the third in a series and the first 'usable' motor cars on the continent (one of the early explorers had a car which proved near unusable). Here's a musical link. I originally posted this in conjunction with my ipernity article "Preserving history".