site.btaBad Weather Keeps Bulgarian Antarctic Explorers in South America Outpost

The fourth group of the 34th Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition, led by the head of the expedition, Prof. Christo Pimpirev, will not depart for Antarctica on Friday due to cancelled flights from Punta Arenas, Chile.

The first part of the group arrived in Punta Arenas on January 25 and, according to plan, was supposed to fly together with members of the Turkish Antarctic Expedition on January 28, but the journey was cancelled because of unsuitable landing conditions on King George Island in Antarctica. This subgroup includes BTA’s special correspondent.

The second part of the group, led by Prof. Pimpirev, arrived in Punta Arenas on January 29 and was scheduled to depart on January 30, but its flight was also cancelled.

At present, all flights to Antarctica have been cancelled because of strong winds and fog around King George Island. Conditions are expected to improve on January 31 (Saturday), allowing both groups to fly to the island, from where the Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) will transport them to the Bulgarian base on Livingston Island.

Prof. Pimpirev told BTA that Antarctic researchers, both Bulgarian and foreign, are often forced to wait even up to a week in Punta Arenas until the weather conditions on King George Island become suitable for safe flying and landing.

Following the annual re-opening of the Bulgarian Antarctic Base on Livingston Island in mid-November, the actual work of the 34th Expedition began. In the area of South Bay on Livingston Island, the international research team, assisted by the expedition’s logistics team, is collecting samples for several scientific projects.

RSV 421 set sail for the icy continent on November 7 from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Varna.

BTA has had a national press club on board the vessel since 2022. In February 2024, the national news agency also opened one at the Bulgarian Antarctic Base on Livingston Island. The two press clubs exist thanks to the free support of the RSV 421 crew and of the Bulgarian base, which have provided the necessary premises. These are added to BTA's other 41 press clubs (33 in Bulgaria, seven abroad in neighbouring countries and countries with large Bulgarian communities, and one mobile called National Book Press Club).

The reports of BTA’s special correspondents from NIK 421 and from Antarctica are freely accessible in a special thematic section of the news agency’s website, entitled “Bulgaria-Antarctica BTA's Log,” in Bulgarian and English, and may be used freely by all media with attribution to BTA. According to BTA Director General Kiril Valchev, thanks to its special correspondents the agency appears among the first results in a Google search for the phrase “Antarctica correspondent”.