Kintyre man celebrates new year on Antarctica
While Santa was busy getting organised for Christmas at the North Pole, a Kintyre man was hard at work at the South Pole.
Murdo MacLarty spent the festive period on Adelaide Island, Antarctica, at a place dubbed ‘the world’s most extreme construction site’, where he has been working for the past two months.
His role as a steel-erecting supervisor involves him putting together a prefabricated wharf – ‘Imagine a giant IKEA flat-pack project,’ he said – which is part of an enterprise to upgrade a number of survey sites in Antarctica, including the continent’s largest, the Rothera Research Station, where Murdo is stationed.
For more than 100 years, research teams have studied earth’s polar regions, which are among the most remote and hostile environments known to humans, with temperatures barely rising above freezing, even in summer.
To ensure that the UK remains at the cutting-edge of climate, biodiversity and oceanographic research, the British Antarctic Survey has partnered with specialist contractor BAM and engineering firm Ramboll for the upgrade project, in which the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) has invested more than £300 million.
Many of the upgrades revolve around the Sir David Attenborough research vessel, which gained fame after almost being named Boaty McBoatface following the results of the NERC’s ‘name our ship’ campaign.
Because the vessel measures 30m longer than its predecessor, stations including Rothera have to be adapted, and infrastructure upgraded, to allow the ship to dock.
The Rothera wharf project, on which Murdo is working, is a two-season project, involving the dismantling of the old quay and the construction of its replacement, due to be finished in April 2020.
Murdo has been involved since the start of the project, previously completing a sixmonth stint at the South Pole and currently in the middle of a seven-month trip.
Murdo has worked with BAM on and off since 1997 and he has lots of experience working on marine projects, acquiring all the skills required for his role at the moment.
Undertaking construction in such an inhospitable environment is challenging as it is but Murdo has to work 12 hours a day, with only one day off a week.
‘It is very busy so the days tumble by very quickly,’ he said. ‘You can’t really go exploring as we only have a 14km area that is deemed safe. It has a flag line all the way round it and you can’t go outside this area but you can go snowboarding and skiing in the area.
‘Boat trips are available too, weather depending, and you can go and look at icebergs and sometimes whales.’
In addition to whales, Murdo has seen a variety of wildlife, including Weddell seals, elephant seals, fur seals, penguins and blue-eyed shags.
He added: ‘The best thing is no rain and 24 hours of daylight for four months, but the worst thing is being in bunk beds with four in a room.’
Being five hours by plane from the nearest town means that when the workers arrive for their season, they are pretty much there until the end, no matter what happens.
Murdo said he didn’t mind being away from home and working at Christmas and New Year, adding: ‘The weather is better here anyway and we still get a good turkey dinner!’
On whether he would do another season at the South Pole, Murdo said: ‘I’d possibly do it again, depending on how I feel after this trip. Seven months at work is a long time, and the weather is really poor by the time we leave.’
Never one to miss out on a unique experience, Murdo spent his free time in the summer, between his two seasons in Antarctica, working in Romania.
He said: ‘I was a track manager for Red Bull Romaniacs, the world’s hardest enduro motocross rally. I was part of a 20-man team marking out and preparing 800km of off-road track for more than 500 competitors. It was epic!’
‘The best thing is no rain and 24 hours of daylight for four months’