Chilean Base Bernardo O'Higgins

This was cancelled at O'Higgins on 7 November 2010 and again at Frei Base on 22 November 2010.  O'Higgins is an older base, located at the tip of the Antarctic peninsula. It is a year round base with a winter staff of about 16. The German Aerospace Center has a receiving station here to pick up data sent from satellite sensors over the Antarctic region. You can find some good webcam image here

Dumont d'Urville again...

Another letter back from TAAF the other day. This one I sent down near the end of 2009. It was cancelled 25 February 2010 and just got back to me this past week.

TAAF Cover - Dumont d'Urville Station

I mailed this around August or September of 2009. It was postmarked on 7 Feb 2010 and got back to me yesterday: 13 Jan 2011. How's that for a delay. It must have missed the last of the outgoing trips at the end of the 2009/10 season and had to overwinter at the base, waiting until the 2010/11 season to finally be mailed out.

Chilean Base Captain Arturo Prat

Arturo Prat is the oldest of the Chilean Antarctic bases and up until a few years ago, was staffed year round. Now it is a seasonal base used for atmospheric and weather research. This letter was cancelled in Punta Arenas: a Chilean port town in the Strait of Magellan from which a large number of Antarcitc bases and research operations are serviced.

Rothera Research Station... again

Another letter received today from Rothera. There were six stamps in the "50th Anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty" set and I used three for these two covers to Rothera. I used the other three stamps for another BAS station but I can't recall which - I believe it was Halley.

Rothera Research Station

I mailed this to the Philatelic Bureau in Stanley (Falkland Islands) in December of 2009, just after these stamps came out. Guess it took a good year for my letter to make its way down to Rothera and be processed for return. It was cancelled there a little over a month ago.

Rothera is the main British Antarctic Survey base, located on Adelaide Island at the tip of the Antarctic peninsula. It is a year round base maintained by a staff of over 100 in the summer and 20 in the winter. The base has a runway and is serviced by 20 round trip dash 7 flight from Stantley each year.