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With only 4 days to departure for Argentina and just a week for the planned departure from Ushuaia, things are getting serious. For most greater endeavours I undertake, I tend to start dreaming about it in advance. Same for this expedition; at least for that matter. My dream, as most dreams go, was a bit incoherent, but I do clearly remember being on a sailing ship, which unsurprisingly resembled the ‘Australis’ quite a bit. I was sitting on deck just before the mast and tried to keep my mind off these insanely high waves, which towered over our ship like mountains. In my dream I wasn’t particularity worried … but neither was I particularly calm.

So naturally, as I woke up, the first thing was to check the weather forecast for the Drake: for the next 3 days winds between 9 to 17 m/s, waves between 3 and 7 meters and temperatures around 4°C. Hopefully we will be lucky with the weather and we can proceed with our planned departure from Ushuaia to the Antarctic Peninsula on the 24^th.

Franz.

The duffel bags are (nearly) packed and ready, waiting at the entry of my flat for departure. Last minute preparations are still to be completed. The lion’s share of our (scientific) equipment has already been shipped months ago and is waiting for us in Ushuaia. However, there are always some last purchases to be made. Five days until departure: we will meet at the train station Brussel Zuid (Midi) and together take the train to Charles de Gaulle, Paris. From there we will board the plane to Buenos Aires. Ready for our low-emission expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula!

Franz.

Today, our colleagues Steven Goderis (VUB) and Matthias Van Ginneken (ULB) are leaving Cape Town to Antarctica.  If weather permitting (as usual in Antarctica), after a short stay at the Russian air base, they will arrive on the new airfield Perseus located ~60 km away from Princess Elizabeth station. Steven and Matthias will look for micrometeorites around the Belgian station. Micrometeorites are obviously meteorites, but less than 2 mm size (more info can be found in the attached file). Because of their small size, they contain information sometimes different and thus complementary compared to meteorites. The cold and dry climate of Antarctica is ideal for preserving those fragile stones from space. They will brush cracks in rocks to collect dust, a mixture of terrestrial and extraterrestrial material. Micrometeorites will be recovered later in the lab by magnetic separation and hand-picking under microscope.

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