August, 2014 | Mallemaroking

Mark Brandon • August 29, 2014

In the old days Antarctica wasn’t mapped and measured by satellites like it is now. In the past it was all about exploration. Scientists were dropped at bases by ship, and then left for at least a year – sometimes two. Very occasionally more.

When winter comes the sea ice freezes up and the area of sea ice is vast. But after the winter, spring brings long days of light, and that meant travel by dog sled was possible over the ice!

To make the sled journeys more efficient food caches were left along the coast the previous summer perhaps by the same ship that left them. Then the scientists could journey easily over the frozen sea ice to the food cache, and then work inland in their area of operations.

Which brings me to these pictures. This is a food cache left by a ship (I think) in 1962 for a science team setting out from Hope Bay.

Hope Bay Food Dump

Antarctic Chocolate and meat

In Antarctica Marmite can come in tubes

Butter and meat

A tin of biscuits in an Antarctic Food Cache

Oxtail soup and a meat bar

A pile of wooden sledge boxes that contain all human needs: chocolate, biscuits, marmite, meat and soup. What more could you want?

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Posted in History, Science. Tags: Antarctic Peninsula, Food, history, Hope Bay, polar on August 29, 2014 by Mark Brandon.