site.btaLast Group of Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition Is Back Home

The last group of researchers from the 32nd Bulgarian Antarctic expedition came home on Wednesday, arriving at Sofia Airport on a flight from Rome. They are returning after a successful expedition with some 16 implemented projects, including several international ones, said the head of the Bulgarian Antarctic base on Livingston island, Kamen Nedkov.

Apart from Nedkov, the group of returnees included National Center for Polar Research Deputy Director Dragomir Mateev, the boat skipper and field assistant Elka Vassileva and the builders of the laboratory, Kiril Zhechev, Nikolay Ivanov, Todor Todorov, Valentin Alexandrov and Damyan Morandov.

Nedkov also said: "We managed to complete the big construction project [the base lab], to seal the building in preparation of the Antarctic winter." The "big project" is a new laboratory facility where lab equipment will be mounted in the next two years. "We also did various repairs and build a water pipe. Now the base is prepared for wintering and all equipment is turned off," he said.

Participating in the 32nd expedition were the crew of the Bulgarian naval research ship Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) and over 49 researchers and staff, including one Scottish, one Turkish, two Portuguese and 22 Bulgarian scholars, two doctors and six journalists.

The expedition will be officially over when RSV 421 arrives in Varna on April 3, 2024. 

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During the 32nd Bulgarian expedition to Antarctica, which started on November 8, 2023, the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) is publishing interviews with Antarctic researchers. The Bulgaria-Antarctica BTA's Log again provides coverage of the voyage of the Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii to Antarctica and back and its stay there, as it did during the 31st expedition between December 27, 2022 and May 2, 2023. Back then, only BTA had a correspondent, Daily News Editor Konstantin Karagyozov, who covered the 127-day expedition with text, video and photos during the entire voyage (including across the Atlantic in both directions) and throughout the stay in Antarctica. In June 2023, BTA published in Bulgarian and in English an issue of its LIK magazine "To Antarctica and Back under the Bulgarian Flag" dedicated to the historic expedition. 

Again, all of BTA's information on the Bulgarian scientific research in Antarctica and the support provided by the Bulgarian naval research vessel, as well as on the other activities at the Bulgarian Antarctic Base, will be available to all media outlets in Bulgarian and in English on BTA's website in the Bulgaria - Antarctica: BTA's Log section. 

BTA has a National Press Club on board the ship and at the Bulgarian Antarctic base on Livingston Island.