Australia Day Celebration in Antarctica 2013

 Australia Day is traditionally celebrated on the 26th of January each year. It is the date back in 1788 that the first British planted their flag upon the soil of this country and proclaimed it to be theirs.

Personally, I don't celebrate that fact as my descendants are Scottish and German. I do however think it a time to reflect on the fact we are a free country, made up of the best that the world has and  that we have not had to resort to civil war or internal conflict to remain free. 

In Antarctica we celebrate the day like a lot of Australians by going to the beach. We also share the beach with the locals, Adelie penguins and Elephant seals. They don't seem to mind, watching our activities I'm sure with interest. The usual summer swim, beach footy and cricket are always the favorites. The water is nice and cool at  - 1.5° C and a suntanning is always good with the out of water temp. today at 0.7 ° C.

Now you may be wondering about the timing of this years celebrations by us down here in Antarctica. Well, we have our resupply ship Aurora Australis coming later in the week and nothing can hold up this resupply.So, we're just getting in before it comes.