Halley Bay - 2009

Caroline Lewis:

2008/09 was a "quiet" year. Building of Halley VI began in '07/08 and then there was a gap of a year whilst cladding for the blue modules and the steelwork and cladding for the red module were manufactured. Thus in '08/09 we had the smallest summer team for some years (44 was the maximum; for most of the season there were 42 of us). This meant that although there was no building work going on, we were kept very busy maintaining Halley V, a job previously undertaken by over 50 people. We all travelled to Halley together from Cape Town on Ernest Shackleton; the return trip to UK was via the more traditional Falkland Island route.

We had an inspection by a Norwegian Antarctic Treaty Inspection Team right at the end of the '08/09 season, two days before Ernest Shackleton departed. The Team was enthusiastic to see the Station and we were delighted to show it off! [25/03/2010]

Neville Gabie:

I spent the most fantastic summer of my life as artist in residence at Halley. BAS and the Arts Council have been jointly funding artists to spend time in Antarctica and although an artist had previously briefly visited Halley, I think I was the first to spend any length of time there. Once you have been to Halley it is a hard place to leave behind - not just the base and place but all the team. [09/06/2009]