Halley Research Station

Halley 5 is a British Antarctic research station. The main buildings of the station stand on tall stilts that are raised occasionally to keep the buildings from being buried beneath the snow and ice. The base has a staff of 16 in the winter and around 70 in the summer.

I sent this cover and another down there in December of 2009 and you can see it was just cancelled two months ago. I must have missed the end of the 09/10 season. There was nothing on the back of this envelope. The other cover from Halley looks pretty much like this one.

New TAAF stamp for 2011

A new TAAF stamp to be issued 1 April 2011 - Osiris: Southern Patrol. This is a reprint of a 2006 issue, this time with a face value of 0.60€

Preseve the Polar Regions and Glaciers beyond 2009

Just when you thought it was over... At the end of 2009, India issued what I thought would be the last issue of this series. But in November of 2010, Uzbekistan issued a single stamp with the crystal logo on it. And then early in 2011, Serbia issued a small stamp sheet with a pair of stamps also baring the crystal logo. The most recent (that I have seen) is this pair of stamps from Belarus. issued on 11 February 2011. What I like most about these stamps isn't so much the stamp issue itself, but the phlatelic website for the Repiblic of Belarus. Some detailed information about these stamps can be found there.

Neumayer Station

This letter came back to me from The Alfred Wegener Institute of Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany. It was sent down to Neumayer Station III where the stamp in the left corner was applied (or so I was told). It was cancelled aboard the research icebreaker RV Polarstern before coming back to me through 'regular' postal channels.

Neumayer III is a modern research base and has only been in operation for a couple of years. It sits on the Ekström Ice Shelf which is moving towards the ocean at a rate of 200m per year. Six meter tall hydraulic stilts keep the base above the accumulating snow. Here is a webcam shot of the Neumayer III.

SANAE - South Africa

The South African National Antarctic Expedition (SANAE) operates a base on the Antarctic Peninsula, currently SANAE IV. Summer population can reach 100 and the overwinter staff numbers about 10. The program is serviced by the S.A. Agulhas. Even though this cover was brought down to SANAE by Agulhas and the cancel says "Antarctica - Waterfront", I'm quite certain it was really cancelled in Cape Town. Agulhas is scheduled for retirement in the Spring of 2012.

TAAF Cover - Ile Tromelin

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.