Back to Antarctica 2022 Season Blog

Port Lockroy team members Kit Adams and Lucy Dorman, along with Conservation Carpenter Tank Adams, are finally travelling to Port Lockroy as we approach almost two years away from Antarctica. They will carry out essential assessments and repairs to our sites as well as lay a power cable to connect Bransfield House to the solar array installed on the Nissen Hut. The team will also install a new weather station funded by our Big Give campaign and get to work on the penguin survey. While Penguin Post Office isn't reopening in its usual capacity for now, Kit and Lucy will be handling any post that arrives at Port Lockroy. Follow their journey below.

Back to Antarctica 2022 Season Blog

Port Lockroy team members Kit Adams and Lucy Dorman, along with Conservation Carpenter Tank Adams, are finally travelling to Port Lockroy as we approach almost two years away from Antarctica. They will carry out essential assessments and repairs to our sites as well as lay a power cable to connect Bransfield House to the solar array installed on the Nissen Hut. The team will also install a new weather station funded by our Big Give campaign and get to work on the penguin survey. While Penguin Post Office isn't reopening in its usual capacity for now, Kit and Lucy will be handling any post that arrives at Port Lockroy. Follow their journey below.

2022: Blog | A safe start in Stanley

09/01/2022

After working as Antarctic operations assistant part-time since October the time had come to finish planning and packing and head to RAF Brize Norton to meet Tank for the military flight to the Falkland Islands. I think we were both a bit nervous about check-in with all the extra paperwork including covid passes and PCR results. There was much relief when we squeaked in just under our 55kg baggage allowance at 54.4kg and 54.7kg! However, we didn't have long to relax before we heard the flight had been delayed 24hrs. To cut a long story short we spent the next 48 hours on base broken up only by bus rides to the mess hall 3 times a day and having to get second PCR tests collected and posted (thanks to my parents for the courier service) before we finally departed.

Pictured: Tank and Kit enjoy some fresh air in Stanley

Since landing in Stanley we have been in hotel quarantine where Kit had been safely checked in and patiently waiting to hear of our arrival. Daily meals get left outside your door and little pots of ice cream have been a real treat! We are able to have some time outside and had our first visit from the nurse, who was both efficient and gentle with her swabbing technique. 

To pass the time I have been reading Andrew Taylor’s account of Operation Tabarin, Two Years Below the Horn. Even travelling during the current climate seems easier when put in perspective with their journey south in November 1943. Their original ship - the HMS Bransfield - didn’t make it past Falmouth. It was in the Falklands that they took over the Fitzroy, originally built in 1931 for the Falkland Islands Company, and the William Scoresby, finally sailing out of Port Stanley on 29 January 1944. We will board the HMS Protector shortly for our own voyage south.

Pictured: Lucy reads Two Years Below the Horn.

I knew this season would be very different and so far it has definitely lived up to that but I feel very fortunate to have this opportunity and look forward to getting back to Port Lockroy for a third time.

Thanks to everyone who has supported the Trust and helped us to get this far. We will update you with our progress and news as much as we can.

Lucy Dorman, Base Leader 2021 - 2022

Follow the team's progress on social media using #BacktoAntarctica

Read the team's next blog