Walk to the Wallow

Well I was having a bit of a day off today as it had been deemed needed. Who am I to argue, so I found myself twiddling thumbs and getting antsy to go and do something. These are the main highlights of a 3hr walk out the the Old Wallow. The first pair of characters being these two Emperor Penguins that are a long way from any colony. How imbarassing for them!

Next stop was at the Wallow where the stence of the Elephant Seals started to get to you nose a good half a km away. They just think they are so cute and soooooo sexy lounging about on the beach in the sun! Check out these hotties, Hubba, hubba!

I didn't really like the way that this one was looking at me. They are constantly burping, belching and farting and it was a lot like being at home really.

Some red sea weedy stuff that was floating in the water was really just a nice colour change!

This little guy nearly landed on top of me when he launced himself from the water.Making the most of it he put on quite a show for the camera. Adele's are just wackers arn't they!

SAR Training and a Room with a View

This was just a little session the Dr and I ran on the Oxi-viva, medical kits and secondary surveys. It was just a part of the SAR training schedule that will be happening once a week.

This photo is the current view from my room. It is much nicer with the snow outside for a change. Currently has been snowing for 3 days and it really makes it all look a lot nicer than it usually does.

A Symphony of Sounds

The sound of the fresh water lake ice was a real hoot. As you walked across the questionable surface protruding ice pieces broke off creating a little musical as you walked. The sound of the ice scattering across itself sounded a little like a gordy chandelier in the wind just tinkering over and over. It was a little hard to drown out the sound of the boot chains as they wreaked havoc with the crystal structures of the lake.

Boxing Day Trip into the Wilds

Spectacular ice cliffs, wind scours, hallucinations, ridge lines, melt streams, frozen lakes, sunscreen in eyes and more to cap off the walking. Arrived at the Melon at 18:30 and collapsed inside out of the sun. What a relief! Bloody hot in the sun, in fact sweating bullets would really sum up the afternoon! Great view as we skirted along the Plateau but the sun softened snow really is annoying!

The above photo is along the southern side of Trajer Ridge looking west towards the Melon. Below is a photo of just one of the many cool rocks in the Vestfold Hills.

The next couple of days proved to be more of a winter paradise as the wind and snow was constantly driving into our faces.

However I did find time to pose as an Xmas Star in  brief moment oif clarity. Watts Hut is just out of sight behind the rock at knee height on my right hand side!

Santa's Here and Tucking in the Penguins!

As we all gathered outside with the chill in the air, Champaign flowing and the pancakes of leftover sea ice floating along the beach we heard the distant rumble of a Hagglands racing across the rocky ground. As it came into sight Santa was seen hanging out of the escape hatch on the roof! As it drew nearer there was some general concern growing in the crowd as the overzealous driver realised that the Fire Hagg with its 1 tonne of water (The sleigh) was a little heavier than expected. Having difficulty stopping due to the downhill facing weight it drifted through the crowd towards the cliffs! These were narrowly missed as Santa pulled his head in very fast and it continued down the road. Circling around and stopping Santa got out of the Hagg along with his Elves. Santa was dwarfed among the Elves as they were the tallest people on station and he was the shortest.

At the end of the day many kicked on into the night but it was all quiet on the western shores as these little fella's caught a few Z's to get over their Xmas feeding frenzy!

Xmas Eve

A great looking after noon and night wth the pancake ice hanging around out the front of the station! The best time for photos seems to be around midnight at the moment.

Xmas Eve drinks were shared by many in the new Living Quarters (LQ currently under construction). I am sure you can see what a struggle it will be sitting up here when the rest of the building is completed. There are all the pancakes in the background.

Snow Petrel in Flight

These birds are great to watch but hard to get a photo of as they are all over the place chasing the winds. They will come in for a look at you and cut a couple of laps until you are ready to get a shot of them. Then they take off until the camera is away and you are walking again. Cheeky little sods! This is really for that twitcher "George Landy".

Wake up Grumpy!

I have had a couple of nights out in the Antarctic wilderness avoiding snoring, sweaty socks and group farts.

"Believe it or Not!" This is what I look like at 03:00 after waking up outside on a rock ledge thinking that I have slept in and am getting sun burnt. The cure for this is far easier to just zip yourself into the bivvy bag and pretend it was just a dream unless you need to pee. "Where is the damn pee bottle anyway?"

Trajer Ridge

This is the 'Happy Place' known as the Trajer Ridge Melon. Standing on this small rocky outcrop that is alongside a massive 7km tongue of ice that stretches off the plateau. Put in for science in the late 80's it has simply just managed to hold on as it is a great spot to come for field trips and recreational persuits.

All work of course! This is just one of the smaller cracks that you have to negotiate along the way it is about two feet across at this point and it has only a thin film of ice before a botomless drop to your death!

Still working, following the group as we come back down towards the Melon. We are actually walking along the tongue of ice from the plateau. It is steeper and sliperier than it looks.

More cool bubbles frozen in the ice of one of the small water pools along the way. Must be the Antarctic frogs farting (ok blowing bubbles) under the ice and then getting stuck in time.

Chinese Visitors

Yes, even in Antarctica you can get the occasional visitors from another country. The Chinese came to visit for a day this week as they were in the area and thought they would pop in. There voayager's felt very lucky to be just inside the first 2000 Chinese people down here. To put this in perspective though it is only the second year they have come. Insidentally that is a very large boat!

Marine Plain Apples and Melon for Lunch!

This is what the Apples and Melon look like at Marine Plain!

It may have been the only time that I will get out to the Apples that were originally put in for science research in the area. Marine Plain is a large Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA) just south of it; this is due to the fact that there have been a number of sightings of fossilised dolphins. Not special in itself but they are dated before the time lines have placed dolphins and are extremely well preserved as they have appeared to die in the water and fall to the bottom being covered over by the sediments and etched into history. Unfortunately that means that you need a permit to go in there so it was not to be today. The Apples have been in for a number of years and have just hung around as they provide something good to head for and have their own little bit of history.

First Fatty Boomba Elephant Seal of the Summer

Here it is a young elephant seal doing what they do lying around on the beach waiting for all the hot chicks to come and play. Although he is close to the water here there will be hundreds of them arriving over the next few weeks and they will hang out on their own accumulated piles of shit!

These date back hundreds of years and scientists actually come and get core samples of it! Close up it resembles a bunch of manky old doormats all piled up. It was a bit on the nose now but it will get far worse. You can see the piles of poo and poo juice below!

Yummo just as well we were stopping for lunch as I was getting hungry!

Sea Ice There one day Gone the next!

A day is all it took this week to go from sea ice as far as the eye could see to a beach resort! Pretty amazing that 1.7m of ice can break up and dissapear overnight.

Satelites and SAR

Amazingly these are the same thing above and below, the ANARE Satelite dome and dish which makes it possibly to talk to all those people back home and to send any other info that is needed like this blog update. Friday Drinks was had on the inside of the dome and the below photo is of the outside of the dome.

Search and Rescue Training kicked off on Saturday morning. This is one of the heli pilots making sure that nothing delicate gets broken while getting the stretcher into the tight space of the Squirrel. That is with the passenger seat and rear seats removed!

The sights of the last of the sea ice!

Here is an Adele Penguin up close and personal.

Weddell seals hanging around their hole in the sea ice.

The pool of water they were hanging around. They do actually get in every know and then to break up the ice and cool of after sunbaking.

Weddell seal sunbaking and soaking up the rays!

A Weddell seal just keeping a watchfull eye on what is going on in the world.

Tide Cracks Can Be Hazardous!

The next task is in a way the least favourite, most nerve racking but also rather exhilarating. Coming to a stop at a safe distance to survey what the tide crack has to offer I confidently get off the quad with ice axe in hand ready to poke and probe. This process is supposed to make me and the expeditioner’s feel safer as though it is an exact science! When the tide is out this process can be done with some confidence as you can walk the tide cracks without getting wet but when you cannot see the bottom and you cannot walk the route it is a bit of a stab in the dark as it were. The first crack that I came too was deeper than the length of my ice axe handle and already had the surface 1cm refrozen just to make it a little more interesting.

Gulp (large gulping noise)! Should I hold my breath (option one)? Cross my fingers (option two)? Look like I know what I am doing (option three)? Break down and cry (option four)? I lock in, look like I know what I am doing then start the engine and find 2nd gear.

Icy Chess Pieces

I spent the afternoon coming back down Iceberg Alley a couple of nights ago and it was just amazing!

In disbelief at the sheer number of icebergs we weaved our way through them just like mice through a maze. Each of the icebergs stood like a solitary piece from a chessboard that was made of the purest crystals. Many of the icebergs had the resemblance of castles from medieval days of old when knights protected the virginity of the women they desired (maybe I should write a romance novel while I am down here). The deep blue colour of the sky and recesses of the icebergs cracks mimic each other as though they were looking in a

mirror.

This is not always fun and games as it is often that the quads get a little stuck in the driffs of snow. This is usually just a bit of huffing and puffing to get it out but in this instance I decided to watch!

Has anyone seen a gas station?

Although one may think it unusual to find both bottled gas and 600 odd litres of petrol this is a common sight at each of the huts in the Vestfold Hills. These are sling loaded in by helicopter and were freshly painted last year before these were put out there. I guess the fresh sea breeze is not as good as you think. This particular drop is about 1/2 a tank of fuel away from the station so it is not such a bad idea to fill up before returning.

An Odd Couple!

These guy's were spotted a couple of days ago and clearly seem to be a little out of sorts. A David and Goliath type relationship I think! The little fellow is and Adele which by himself makes perfect sense as he is very close to an Adele Rookery, but the juvenille Emperor is just miles away from any hope of mating. Somebody will get a surprise if this unlikely couple gets together!

Gone Fishing!

I managed to get onto a fishing/wading collection of marine life for the aquarium today and found it rather interesting to see the scientists with their dry-suits on and their child restraint harnesses. These were to stop them being swept away by the current and were held onto by their dive assistant. They collected a large number of sea urchins, a couple of starfish and a small fish along with a few other little critters. The tide crack is where I went fishing with my ice axe. It was very gently to collect sea urchins from the bottom without getting ridiculously cold. I do not have any photos of this as it was my head down the hole! We got there in the local taxi/ helicopter service (the public transport system takes you where ever you want to go down here). The other photo is of the sea ice edge as it is breaking off. These pieces break off each day with the rise and fall of the tide!

Training Trip Survival Training and Quad Travel

As you can see from the rugged appearance and the large numbers of icebergs in the backgound I am still down in the great southland. Having to pinch myself sometimes when i wake up in the morning as George is not there to do it! Had a great trip with a crew of 6 people doing their survival and quad training. The picture of the quad was part of the recovery section of the quad ridding training. It shows 3 ice screws in sea ice with a 3:1 pulley system. There were 3 people pulling and they were ablbe to drag the quad with its breaks on and the person on top (total weight approx. 350kgs) more than 10 meters. Great fun and we then took out the best 2 ice screws and found that it was still strong enough to pull the quad off 1. Thge photo of me is around the Bandits Hut area which is as far as we could travel in a day of quad training and area familiarisation.

This is a shot of one of the expeditioners after there night out in a bivvy bag. Would you believe that there was 3-5cm of snow on that person, the lake and the surrounding hills at 01:00 that morning and I had thought I will just get a photo in the morning, but by 06:00 it had all but disappeared. The snow in the background are semi-permanent snow patches left over from winter.

Slippery Stuff on the Ski's

A very busy weekend saw me take to the continent using two of my favourite forms of transport. Although they were not always cooperative!

'Tour de Antarctic'

In true track racing style I was out of the seat pushing the biggest gear I could in an effort to get a really great shot on the camera across a broad ice section and up what looked like a solid snow bank on the other side. After crossing the ice with low angled sun reflecting off it I smoothly made the ascent of the small snow wave (more like a dune of sand for the desert dwellers)before the sickening feeling of the front wheel being pulled towards the icy depths below the snow. Stopping over a far smaller distance than it had taken me to speed up I stopped as my entire front wheel was swallowed by the soft drift of snow. Not having enough time to even consider what had happened I sailed for what felt like an eternity through the air landing with all of the grace of a seal as its body slothfully lands on the ice when getting out of the ocean. Looking back my bike was exactly where I had left it!

Unlike the sand where your bike falls to the ground it was still upright as the snow or either side of the wheels held it in place. Gathering my thoughts I found myself removing snow and ice from the inside of my shoes and gloves, up under my bike knicks, between my eyes and sunglasses, down my back melting into my bum crack (incidentally this later started to refreeze)and between the holes in my helmet! What a stack in true ‘yard sale’ (this is a term commonly used by skiers when they see a total beginner having a big stack and leaving items of equipment and clothing all of the slope in the process) style.

The rest of the ‘Tour de Antarctic’ was relatively tame and after a gruelling 15km in nearly 2hours we returned to base with a broken chain, buckled rim, sore coccyx and deflated spirits! Nah, everything but the deflated spirits and I might add that I had no mechanicals and was not harmed (nothing but pride that is) in any stages of the ‘Tour’.