Aneata ,the 'Ice Maiden of Antarctica'

[murray]

"the highlight of Aneata’s travels was in 1962 on a journey from Wilkes to the ‘Pole of Inaccessibility’ – the Russian base, Vostok; a distance of 1500 km and rising to an altitude of 2500 m. This is where she earned the sobriquet ‘Ice Maiden of Antarctica’, as temperatures plummeted to −80°C. Even a small flask of overproof brandy stored on a shelf froze solid."







linkaneata-the-ice-maiden-of-antarctica

[Don Ricardo]

G'day Murray,

What a fabulous photo! Thanks for posting it and the link to the story about the van. Well worth the read.

With the flash and the shape, the van looks very much like a late 50's or early 60's van, which is what she is, having been built in 1960.

Given that the van was built in an Australian territory, she definitely qualifies as a part of Australian caravanning history, eh?

I reckon that Don Butling who built her, did a pretty good job, given that he was a plumber by trade. The van was apparently used until the 1990's, so lasted pretty well given the conditions it was subjected to.

We now have a bit of information about caravans used in Antarctica by the Australian Antarctic Division. There's info on the Kennedy thread about a Kennedy (or was it a Franklin?) that was used in Antarctica. Perhaps we should start a new thread on Antarctic caravans. What do you think?

For those that are interested, I found an article on a caravan currently being used by the Australian Antarctic Division - click here. The current one isn't vintage, but interesting nevertheless.

Don Ricardo