Tomoko Arai, Recon Team, 20th January, 2013, the South Pole Station

Last night we enjoyed sleeping in an actual bed, not in a sleeping bag, in the air-conditioned room. After having Sunday brunch, we packed cargo outside the building of the South Pole station to prepare for the planned move back to the McMurdo tomorrow. Then, we visited the sights and sounds of the South Pole. In fact, the geographical South Pole continuously moves and so there are two markers. One marks that actual location of the geographic South Pole as of Jan 1st 2013 and is marked with a white stick with a gold circle plate on top (see the photo of me holding the stick). There is also a ceremonial South Pole marker that is surrounded by flags (see photo of me standing next to it and Katie’s blog from yesterday – you can see the USAP research station in the background). We look forward to being back to the McMurdo and getting together with the main team hopefully tomorrow!