The Bulgarians from the first group of the 30th Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition are still at the Uruguayan base on King George Island and have not sailed with the Chilean ship Galvarino to the Bulgarian polar base St. Kliment Ohridski on Livingston Island. This was announced for BTA by Prof. Hristo Pimpirev - Director of the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute, who is also the leader of the Bulgarian Antarctic expeditions on the Ice Continent.

He said the Chilean ship Galvarino had to transport Bulgarian polar explorers and all their luggage, along with fuel and construction materials, to Livingston Island after they had failed to land on December 9th. That is why for two weeks now the first group with the Bulgarian Antarctic, mainly logistics and builders, has been sheltered in the Uruguayan base on King George Island, explained Prof. Hristo Pimpirev.

Our polar explorers will be on Christmas Eve at the Uruguayan base on King George Island, and at the earliest on Christmas or the next day, the Chilean ship will sail with them to Livingston Island. Then - at Christmas, there is expected to be a "window" of good weather so that Bulgarian polar explorers can sail with the Chilean ship to Livingston Island, where the Bulgarian Antarctic base "St. Kliment Ohridski" is located. The ship will also be loaded with cement, which will be used to lay the foundations of the new laboratory in the Bulgarian base, which will be built there, said Prof. Pimpirev.

He explained that the delay of the first group of Bulgarian polar explorers is more than ten days and therefore the builders traveling with our Antarctic will stay in Antarctica for another two weeks because they can not complete the planned construction activities. The builders are from the village of Chepintsi, Smolyan region. They will lay the foundations of the new laboratory complex, which will be an entirely new building. There are four builders in total, but there are two people responsible for building a construction lift, one of them from Chepelare. "The delay of the Bulgarian expedition is half a month, but because of that it is very difficult to collect them, because it was arranged for them to return half a month earlier," said Prof. Hristo Pimpirev.

The first group of the 30th Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition left Bulgaria for the Ice Continent on November 19. The group had a flight from Sofia Airport, on the route Sofia - Amsterdam - Santiago de Chile - Punta Arenas - Livingston Island.

The group includes the commander of our Antarctic base "St. Kliment Ohridski" Oleg Vassilev, the doctor Atanas Peltekov and the logisticians - eng. Yordan Yordanov, eng. Petar Sapundzhiev, eng. , Asan Topalski, Alexander Naidenov, Julian Bashev, Yavor Tsvetanov and Ivaylo Yankov. The leader of the 30th Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition is Prof. Hristo Pimpirev, who, however, is not in its first group.

The main task of the group, after the decommissioning of the Bulgarian polar station after the severe winter period, will be related to the construction of the foundations of the new laboratory unit, which is being built there.

In January 2022, the second group of scientists from our expedition is expected to leave for Antarctica, working on research projects approved in a competition of the National Center for Polar Research.

/BTA