Resupply - The "Vassiliy Galovnin" comes to town

The next main event at Casey station was our re-supply. This was a pretty huge week. The “Vassiliy Galovnin” is a Russian cargo ship. It bought our supplies for the rest of the year as well as our personal cargo. At last, my computer and my piano had arrived, plus a heap of mail. Thanks to everyone who sent me stuff. It is nice to know people are thinking of me. I have quite a few pressies to open on my birthday now, which will be lovely.
The first thing to occur was fuel re-supply. This took place 24/7 over three days and was a mammoth task. Shifts rotated until all was complete. Good thing we have 24/7 daylight hey? Then the rest of the cargo was unloaded, this included everything from food and supplies through to Snow Blowers, Caterpillars, Dozers, you name it, we received it.

I was lucky enough to go out to the Vassiliy and have a full tour and lunch. We were treated to “Borsch”. A traditional Russian soup dish. It was the most fabulous pink colour and was just delicious. I have ot say I was a bit hesitant, but in the end it was lovely. The tour was also excellent and I had a lovely afternoon. The Russians crew is a good lot. We had all sorts of fun trying to understand each other. Some of the hand signs and dances were excellent and we all laughed at each other and managed to get our understanding happening.
It was a really long week and we worked through Australia Day. So Marilyn, our station leader, declared Australia Day on the Monday after the ship departed. We had a fabulous BBQ and the obligatory game of cricket. It was a good end to a big week