Heading Home 18/03/2010

 Well sadly the time has come for the boat to arrive and sail away for the big old land of Aus. Many a rich memory will be engraved forever in my mind and the Antarctic spirit will live on as I stay in touch with those that will remain for the experience of the Antarctic Winter.

Looking forward to seeing George when I get back and of course everyone else!

Friday 19th March

Well it has been settled and there is little room for a change at this stage but the ship is set to sail tonight as all of the cargo has been stowed and there is only one more helicopter to get into the hanger. It is very likely that we will be on our way within a couple of hours which is just great as the novelty of sitting on the ship has already worn off. Looking forward to a speedy journey home with the chance of getting in by the 28th of March.

See you all soon!

Last trip in the Inflatable Ice Breakers!

 What a lovely day to be out on the water! -120C in the sun when it was there and a light breeze as the three little IRB’s headed for the Sorsdal Glacier and Kazak Island for a number of little jobs. Knowing it was going to be cold I went in ready. Two sets of thermals, socks, gloves and then fleece pants and two fleece tops, neck warmer, balaclava, and beanie. Then over the top was an immersion suit and a pair of sunnies.

You can also see that I nearly got crapped on by a Skua!

 The sea ice is starting to harden and make travelling in the IRB’s a little difficult at times as they are not designed to break ice! It is pretty amazing to see the ice as it is actually elastic at the moment and moves with the wake of the boat without cracking. It was about five centimetres thick. Here is hoping that it will not slow down the Aurora Australis too much on its way to get us.

 Moving further south towards the Sorsdal Glacier we turned off the engine for about half an hour and drifted while the Soundman recorded the noises of the glacier as it meets the ocean. He did this with his hydrophone over the edge of the boat and really captured some amazing sounds.

 We were also given the task of having a look for a piece of Antarctic heritage supposedly on Zolotov Island. It was getting a bit late and colder so we did not look for long. It is a rock cairn placed there or somewhere down this end of the Vestfold’s by a fella called Wilkins many moons ago and was one of the first landings in the area.

Soundman at Trajer Ridge

The location was locked in for Trajer Ridge for which there were no complaints and we were off to spend a day recording ice forming and the sounds from within the ice or crevasses. After landing on the ice we had quickly had a bit of an exploration towards some of the known crevasses and dropped a microphone down to the bottom of the crevasse on a ten metre cable. The sound guy was very excited about this chance as it was a blue sky day with no wind. Something that he has not had very much of so was relieved and ready for all he could get his ears on! Leaving the microphone in place we headed for some fresh water ice on the nearby lake.

 Gingerly stepping out onto the lake to see if it was strong enough I took out the gear and then got him to come out turn it all on after I was satisfied that the ice was indeed thick enough. Leaving it to in place there was nothing left to do but sit and wait quietly as the recorders did there thing. Coming back after a hot drink we moved on to a small stream of water trickling down a creek over ice and rock to another lake lower down the hill.

 After getting to the bottom of the stream we found that the second lake was actually very audibly active and was really making a song and dance as it formed. Being a larger body of water it had been open water until recently when it started to freeze. Now it was about thirty centimetres thick and easily capable of holding our weight. The question was could I hack through it with an ice axe to get a hydrophone in?

After much swinging, hitting and chipping away at the ice I had managed to create a hole in the ice! Had I known about the likelihood of having to do this I would have just brought the sea ice drill with me, but alas I was destined to do it with my axe. In the process of doing this there comes a time when most of the hole fills with water and you still need to hack away at it so it can be a rather dampening experience and requires a full Gortex covering.

 Job done! We recorded over 6 hours of sound for the day and the hole and the second lake were by far the most amazing noises that I have heard in nature. It did get me thinking about some of George’s music at one stage with almost electronic duff noises and the sounds of high tensile cable splitting and breaking. Good fun and very rewarding as a different way to know the place that is Antarctica.

Another clear night with the LIDAR on and an amazing aurora to boot!

Field Travel Travel Training - the last one! Day 3

Waking initially as snow fell on my face in the early hours of the morning I continued to drift in and out of sleep. The night brought with it the dump of the summer and I had been sleeping with my bivvy bag open! Lucky me! As the snow fell and continued to build up on the outer surface of the bivvy the weight would compress your sleeping bag until the cold would get the better of you and you would have to shake like a dog until it all fell off to the sides and the process started again.

 This is the coffin like trench where I slept! You can see the ground as that is what it looked like last night! New view from the camp at early hours.

 The walk through the transformed winter wonderland was just great on the way back to Davis Station! SW Edge of Lake Collerson, Perched Rock (it is a rock that perches precariously funnily enough), through the Portals, NW to Lake Dingle and under Sentinel Knoll before finishing off on the old favourite Dingle Road. Arriving at 09:45 just in time to drop off the poo bag to the incinerator before smoko! What a great trip to get in before I depart within a couple of weeks!

Crazy and crumpy penguin on the way home. Obviously forgot his map when he went for a walk!

Field Travel Travel Training - the last one! Day 2

 Me having a bad hair day obviously! Below is part of the massive Sorsdal Glacier.

 The hole that I mad with my ice axe to get water for lunch. The ice won that round as e adze broke off!

 We were ready for bed by about 18:00 but I headed up the hill with no takers for a poo with a view! Looking out over the Ellis Fjord and out to the ocean with the icebergs on the horizon as the sun set. There was a solar pillar tonight which was pretty cool as a pillar of sunlight the width of the setting sun shone towards the cloudy sky like the Batman floodlight (without the bat on it!). Getting back down to the frosty campsite there was not a movement by 19:30 so I readied for bed and watched the golden light move up the western facing side of Tarbuck Crag. Beautiful night with your head out of the bivvy!

Field Travel Travel Training - the last one!

 To make up for the fact that I missed another golden opportunity to head off with good weather yesterday after SAR training (there are no helicopters for ‘Jolly’ purposes anymore) a plan was hatched yesterday. There were a few crew coming in the flight to pick up the SAR team to Trajer and we would walk to the untouchable SE corners of the Vestfold’s. Unsuccessful we formulated a trip in the name of training the only winterer not to do travel training yet.

SAR Training on the Ice with Live Victims!

 More SAR training today which was good to see how much had been retained from last week. Today we had the full contingent and I looked after the crew on the ice while Mike was watching a crew on the rock at Trajer Ridge. We collectively had the rock group lower a stretcher to the bottom of a 70m slope which put it in a position to be raised up an icy slope.

 Packed up early as the Dr was off the station to drop a sick expeditioner to the Chinese to take home. This cancelled all field parties.