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All Alone at the End of the World

Isolation on a Polar Station
Mikołaj Golachowski
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Mikołaj Golachowski:
a polar explorer with a PhD in natural sciences, who spends four months every year in Antarctica and in the Arctic. Mikołaj writes about nature for both children and adults. His latest books are “Czochralem antarktycznego słonia” [I’ve Ruffled an Antarctic Elephant] (Marginesy, 2016) and “Gęby, dzioby i nochale” [Gobs, Beaks and Schnozzes] (Babaryba, 2016).

One day, our Antarctic expedition received a package containing a video cassette with the first Polish edition of Big Brother. With a concerned voice, the narrator was explaining that the participants had been locked up together for the past 90 days! We all exchanged glances; it was day 281 of our stay at the Arctowski Station.

The memory above is a story a friend told me, but it gives you a proper picture of what isolation at a polar station means to me. As for myself, I have participated in four expeditions at the Henryk Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station, including two winter-overs, or all-year expeditions.

The way it usually plays out is that in October, a ship leaves the port in Gdynia and arrives at King George Island in the South Shetlands, where Arctowski is located, after a 40-day voyage. The future winter-over staff generally participate in the entire voyage to sync as a team, but also to prepare supplies that will have to last for a long time. That’s why during the voyage, a few days are dedicated to activities like cutting up vegetables and dividing them into smaller portions for freezing, sometimes cracking eggs that are then frozen in bags, etc. The ship first makes a stop at anchor in Gothenburg to fill up on special polar fuel for power generators, and then in the Canary Islands to stock up on food and water. After crossing the Atlantic, it calls into one of the ports in Argentina, where more food supplies are loaded (including one very important thing: wine). This is also where the winter team is joined by the summer team for the final stretch to the Station. We make it to our destination at the beginning of November and the unloading starts, which usually lasts around three days. Yet if weather conditions allow it, we work around the clock. Once all the scientific equipment, food and fuel for the station are unloaded, the current winter-over staff board the ship and travel to Patagonia; from there, they take a flight back of Poland. From this moment on, the new expedition is for the most part on its own.

Summer on the Copacabana

During the summer, there are as many as 40 people at the station, so isolation is not that big of an

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Mikołaj Golachowski:
a polar explorer with a PhD in natural sciences, who spends four months every year in Antarctica and in the Arctic. Mikołaj writes about nature for both children and adults. His latest books are “Czochralem antarktycznego słonia” [I’ve Ruffled an Antarctic Elephant] (Marginesy, 2016) and “Gęby, dzioby i nochale” [Gobs, Beaks and Schnozzes] (Babaryba, 2016).
Translation: Mark Ordon
Publish date: 22.04.2020

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A several-year-old elephant seal has just woken up from a nap, realizing that he is surrounded by king penguins. Photo by Mikołaj Golachowski
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Antarctica, My Love

An Ode to the ‘Unknown Continent’
Mikołaj Golachowski
Mikołaj Golachowski:
a polar explorer with a PhD in natural sciences, who spends four months every year in Antarctica and in the Arctic. Mikołaj writes about nature for both children and adults. His latest books are “Czochralem antarktycznego słonia” [I’ve Ruffled an Antarctic Elephant] (Marginesy, 2016) and “Gęby, dzioby i nochale” [Gobs, Beaks and Schnozzes] (Babaryba, 2016).

It’s possible that, when you think of paradise, you imagine palm trees, the sound of the sea, and soft white sand. OK, that could be your paradise. Mine is a lot different.

I made it to paradise for the first time seventeen years ago, after a forty-day voyage from Gdynia along with the Twenty-Seventh Polish Antarctic Expedition to the Arctowski Station. I arrived there, and, since that time, I basically still can’t believe my luck. Because it’s one thing to read about penguins that wander around not paying any attention to us and another thing to see that they not only exist but they are indeed wandering around not paying any attention to us. And that nearby is an elephant seal with her newborn pup that looks like a mole weighing thirty-something kilograms covered in black woolly fur with sweet yet clueless gigantic black eyes. During the few days it took to unload, when we had to carry all the equipment and food we brought with us from the ship and pump out the fuel, the mole nearly doubled in size. And three weeks after it was born, it weighed over a hundred kilograms and swapped its black fur for a shiny dark grey velvety version.

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