Live From Antarctica: Sunday December 28th

About an hour later, the first rumbling sounds were heard far away, and the small black dots on the horizon became bigger by the minute: the convoy is back. Three Prinoth tractors bringing back the fourth broken one, nine containers (amongst which a cooler stuffed with food - the cook is delighted!), our eight original expedition members and twelve new recruits...Some swear they broke the unloading record!

Everyone is here! What a change in the camp. We went from 12 people to 32. The expedition members greet the traverse team. They welcome the newcomers and talk about what's happening in Belgium at the moment. "You unloaded in 36-hour shifts???" Some want to see their wonderful "new home" - the tents we put up for them - first. Others want to warm up in the mess tent, where the cook is ready to welcome and feed the new recruits. Others are already unloading containers and planning the various teams' work for tomorrow.

All of a sudden, the camp bustles with activity, which is a little disconcerting for the "sedentary" ones, who had become used to sharing the space between the twelve of them. But it's a brand new environment and a new phase in the station's construction.

Nathalie Pattyn