Beaver Lake, New Year's Eve, 31st December 2001

---

Finally, New Year's Eve was upon us and the weather was terrific with only 20 knot winds. Anya found a reasonably suitable seismic site about 80 metres uphill from the camp and we sorted through the seismic kit, taking up the components of the solar panel frame. Tom and I dug out several drums out of the snow and ice, a suprisingly tricky operation. Ric and Kevin dropped off another load of four ATK drums, and we had a cheerful time wishing each other new year salutations. We could only just get Chunky at Lake Terra Savoje on the sked. Our celebrations started in earnest with six longnecks of Davis dark ale, interspersed with a delicious curried pumpkin and parsnip soup. This was followed by a stir-fry and grilled kranskis with cheese stuffing. The Tassie plum pudding was steamed and served with some custard we had discovered, absolutely delicious. Later we all adjourned to the warm surveyor's apple, cranked up the music and savoured a 1997 Mudgee Huntingdon Estate Shiraz abd Glenmorangie. Davis midnight was celebrated, followed by local midnight (at 2.27 am) the sun just greeping behind Flagstone Bench. To celebrate we fired off a few holy hand grenades into the "darkness". Things got a bit wild when James Beam interloped into proceedings and the lounge music was played. Tom had his video camera recording all our new year's misadventures. I think we eventually collapsed into our bunks at 5.30 or so. Tom was probably the southernmost Australian on this day, possibly in the world, if not the AAT. Certainly we were all very happy being the southernmost camp in Australian Territory at the moment.

Beaver Lake (BVLK) Technical Inspection

Beaver Lake, Base Camp S 70°48'11" E 68°10'46"

---

Previous day | Back to Log | Back to Expedition page | Return to Homepage | Next Day