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’.

Out to the Amery and the Land of the Never Ending Sunset

Yesterday was a ripper but had a bit of a slow start as my day was due to start at 17:00 with a helicopter flight out to Zhong Shan the Chinese base to drop off some BBQ gas fittings, Sansom Island where there is an Australian Melon Shelter and fuel depot, on to the Amery where the AMISOR drilling project was running to drop off cheese, newspapers, extra sleeping bags and a bannana cake! Really we were there to go and survey the next drill site with a couple of the team members. After the all clear it was back to the base finising by 02:00 for a late dinner.

Although I did go out on the sea ice monitoring program to have a look at the progress of the deteriorating conditions. Here is one of the guys pulling out the 2 meter long drill bit. You can see some water coming out with it. Funilly enough there are also krill coming out in this spout of salty water. It does stop and settle down but looks good when it first happens.

My Room in Antartica (This is really for George!)

Well it is not much and most likened to a dog box office and bed combo for two! Thank goodness there are not two in there as that would be the pits. Not much but it is my mess. At the moment I have just got back from one trip and about to go on another. The door does not open all the way as that is where my dirty jocks and socks are! I have only just done my first load of washing this evening so it does open a bit more but there are heaps of things hanging on the back of the door to restrict this too! I really use the floor as a low shelf and that seems to work for me but I occassionally regret having multiple ice axes on the floor.

Beached As in the Antarctic

Well it has been a busy few days here in the cold! Started trianing of the expeditioners three days ago and didn't stop until now. It was quad/ survival due to time constraints the first day with a half day quadding trip looking at navigation and travel then half day walk and bivviy out on an Antarctic beach. Yes Beach that is 51 meters below sea level, so the lowest and saltiest in the Southern Hemisphere and maybe the World. Anyway there were some Adele Penguins there on holidays from the ocean. I guess it is like the ocean to them as it is far saltier than the water of the southern ocean and will not freeze until -18 degrees or something ridiculous like that! You can see the petrified seal that really didn't taste very good but softened up after an hour in your mouth! Changeover at lunchtime then another 24hr trip for familiarisation for crew that had come from Mawson and Casey. Plenty of things to see and do and heaps of really cool rocks. That is really all there is to look at other than a few dead things and the ocassional penguin. No I lie there were a few Wilson's Storm Petrels which nest under rocks and make a very odd noise if you are near the nest. No such luck as to spot one on a nest as they are well hidden. They were heard on the way up Mt Lied at 126m above sea level you go from the ice straight up and have panoramic 360 degree views out to the icebergs and to the plateau which extends 4000km to the pole and beyond.