Warren the Rubbish Eater!

That could be seen as false advertising s Warren is really an incinerator that burns all of the burnable rubbish on base. He is getting pretty old these days and is due for replacement. Warren does a bit of a session a couple of times a week and takes a couple of hours each time. He is a part of the Plumbers domain but everyone takes rubbish over for him to eat.

 This is warrens home where we all take rubbish. Below you can see Warren warming up with a full belly ready to go. On top are all of the scrubs and my appendix from the other day in a biohazardous bag! The door will get closed and when the top burner is hot enough one will start up in the chamber with the rubbish.

Fire Drill in the Field Store

 As you can see from the smoke coming down from upstairs it was another full dress rehersal this week. Although I am not in the Fire Team it was good to see them in action and I really didn't have the option to carry on work as they smoked up my office! Two smoke machines totally filled the upstairs rooms to the point where there was no point taking photos.

 Here are a couple of our Fire Team Standing by at the business end of the Hagglands. The vehicle is the fire truck and purpose built for the job complete with water, pumps, breathing apparatus, axes and big power tools! Below two more are prepared to enter the building with all of their breathing gear on. They have beeber thingy's that go off when they stop moving for too long which are very effective.

Dave's Appendectomy Was a Success!

At lunch I found my answer which I thought would just be a quick fix! If the plot is thickening I volunteered to have my appendix removed at 14:00. I volunteered to be the patient for the surgical team to practise an appendectomy. This is one of the more common procedures that may need to be completed over winter with no external assistance. Obviously there is a doctor down here for winter but they like there trained medical team to have had some practice before the real thing!

Here I am having my appendix taken out!

You may notice that this was just a practise and there was absolutely no penetration of David Atkins at any time during the lengthy and extremely risky proceedure! That little blue thing is my appendix which happens to be filled with curried egg!

More of the Hard Training

Here we are in Platcha Hut with the Russians after a long day in the boots. We had dinner with them and they were very hospitable with the scotch as the Vodka had run out! Below is the view from my bivvy sack.

 After the late finish last night I let the crew have a bit of a snooze to recover from the long day so it was not until 09:00 that we all rose. Not really fresh as a daisy the aches and pains of the previous day set in after a night of strong winds. The winds have the effect of whipping the bivvy bag into your face so that you are frequently woken with this cold slap to the face! This does not make for the most relaxing of nights as I am sure you can imagine!

The waters run red with the concentratioon of iron in the lakes. We walk over some amazing ice features and caves. This one slumped in the middle under the weight of the dirt ontop of it.

 This little Oyster is a rather uncommon variety for the location and the first of its type that I have seen.

 More carnage! This Elephant seal is years old and still maintains its shape after having its eyes pecked out and a large amount of holes down its sides.Still has a satisfied grin on his face as he is a long way inland for this sized animal!

Field Travel Travel Training

Above you can see footprint from a week ago where we crossed and now it is a little sketchy to say the least! Below, yes that is actually me in the Lawrence of Arabia getup!

From Trajer Ridge Melon we headed NE under the spectacular ice cliffs stopping for a few brief photo ops and a bit of healthy and harmless seal impersonation t o the Plateau. It was not that easy I might add as there were numerous melt streams that were coming down at a great rate of knots. These varied between balancing delicately over thin ice as water rushed below to punching through and having freezing water come into your boots from the hole that your foot is in! Brrrrr!

 Every now and then it was possible to feel a moment of weightlessness as you jumped to the other side of a stream only to have what seemed solid on the other side crumble beneath your weight. Once we were on the Plateau we were able to travel at a far greater pace as our feet were already wet through so they could only get colder from this point on. We did go past the ice cliff at GR003958 and ventured back for a closer look! Heading to the western end we found our way into the large cliff and the depression that was being created and walked through travelling up over moderate terrain at it northern end. Great bit of viewing and off for more boot wetting obstacles.

This was while I was pointing out the advantages of not having your boot chains on! This is the be closest thing I have had to gettcng some downhill runs in that I have had!

Here I am about to head over that Ice cliff down to Platcha Hut at the end of the day. the Fjord Ice is really getting a little poor for travel as you can see (still looks great).

Survival Training Take Two For The Week

This nBeast is the Mill-8 Russian Helicopter which is very agricultural but also very large and capable of lifting shit loads. Weighing in at 7 tonnes it has a Gross of 12 tonnes. Notice that it has three engines and five blades.

 

 Above is walking along Shirokya Bay and the view afterpoint from our campsite at Deep Lake.

Fuel Spill and Near Miss!

The Squirrel that came into view was slinging a load and it seemed to be having a hell of a bad time with the load to be honest. The load was fuel drums hanging off a thirty meter sling and appeared to be a little uncooperative as they swung around and backwards and forwards. With each swing it seemed to get worse for the helicopter and appeared as though the 700 odd kilos under the helicopter were doing the driving. Precariously it kept rocking as the helicopter jolted around attempting to get the load under control.

Below is the site where the drums hit, you can see how smashed up they are!

It got to the point where the pilot feared for his own safety and jettisoned the load while some couple of hundred meters in the air almost instantly stabilising the helicopter back into control and a sigh of relief could be felt by all concerned as the 600 litres of SAB (special Antarctic Blend) sailed through the air unaccompanied by the helicopter. Looking on in total bewilderment we watched as the drums burst on impact with the ground and exploded fuel and drums lids in three different directions. Lids went flying over 50 metres from the impact site and the drums were literally flattened to the ground just like a tin can that has been jumped on after the ends are removed. The tangled mess of drums and sling cables was still almost as fast as it was airborne. This is really not something that I hope to ever see again out on a bushwalk!

 

 Above is a close up of what the fuel looks likem when it is floating on the surface of the water. Below you can see what the large booms look like when they are employed onto the surface of the water. These are fuel absorbant and float where the fuel is likely to gather.

Mossel Lake

Here I am at the waterfall that feeds Mossel Lake and you can see the cloudy water. It is the Rock Flour from the Sorsdal Glaciar that is crushing and grinding the rocks into dust. Below is the local mossbed which is not nearly as healthy as that at Lichen Lake but still another place that very few get to as i t is a sensitive area.

Scientists collecting fresh water macro-invertebrates with a small drag net, not a bad spot eh! Below if you look really hard you might see some of the little critters that are in the water as they look like little red lice but are a crustacean!

Wh can guess what these are? They were actually from Lichen Lake area but did not fit in that blog entry.

Lichen Lake

Scientist collecting moss from Lichen Lake which is a sensitive area and really not visited without a environmental permit. Below is some of the moss which is the greenest thing I have seen apart from Penguin poo with bile as they are hungry. Very juicy and looked great as it was giving off gaseous bubbles.

The infamous Lichen Lake was pretty sweet and it would be great if you could walk there but it would take about four days from base! Here is some of the special and sensitive lichen growing against the odds in Antarctica.

The Last Piece of the Walls and SAR Training

Team Trades is very excited as they were able to put the last fibreglass piece onto the new building which means they will be onto the windows and sealing it all up. The panels are more than 1000kgs each and have a lot of fancy stuff inside them including carbon fibre sheets to discharge static electricity built up as the wind blows across the surfaces!

SAR Training this week was at the climbing wall and expeditioner's had to rope up for glacier travel and then prussic up and down the ropes. It was not always done with great ease!

The Boat is Back!

V2 was here and things go a little crazy.

Down at the warf the crane unloads the barge! This was all I saw on the Monday as I felt soaked to the bone after absorbing some 70+ sink loads of water throughout my hands and arms not to mention a good dose of every dish that was served up for the day. I am staggered when I actually reflect on the fact that aside from 14:30 to 15:30 I literally washed dishes continuously for the day. There is no way in Hell that I ever want to come back as a full time dish pig.

Another Walk to the Old Wallow

A shadow as fast as a speeding bullet gave me a bit of a fright to the point where I went into the duck and cover mode. Why is it so? Well I was heading towards a small fresh water pool of water where there were several Skua’s bathing themselves. They are really ugly birds and think that they are at the top of the food chain as there is nothing that eats them. I guess they are right with no predators! Swoosoohhhh, there goes another I was under attack so instinctively went for the camera first. After taking a few shots of the over confident birds swooping at me I went for the next move. A rock opening return fire (that was just the internal thoughts I did not actually take to trying to harm the scavengers of the Antarctic).

Skua just taking flight

Elephant Seal catching some rays.Moving onto the wallow I found that the seals had actually moved around a little which involves a hugemongous amount of effort on their parts. Getting their big bluberous bodies about is quite a sight! Slightly grossed out and satisfied with a few photos I moved on back towards the station but not via Skuaville.

On the way back I stopped in at the resident Emperors who are well into their malting at the moment and look rather funny with big patches of feathers missing. They appear to be very irritable and look like they have been sleeping in the gutters after a few big nights. The big patches of malt look like something has taken some bites out of them in a few places and then stripped all the meat of their streamlined flippers. They are likely to be around for a bit longer at this rate and based on the nuclear green poo around the place they are rather hungry to boot! So much to see before lunch!

Looks itchy doesn't it?