Wildlife

This post will be dedicated to the fantastic wildlife that we are currently getting some of which can be a hindrance to work but it is always spectacular.

Birds,

We get lots of different sea birds but the most iconic, of course is the penguin. We mainly get Adelie penguins round here who are very inquisitive and will often call back to you if you imitate them.

Adelie penguins

Adelie swimming

The largest bird we get is the southern giant petrel or more affectionately known as GP they have a wingspan of 2m and often soar past the boats flying low over the waves.

Giant Petrel

Antarctic shag on a rock

Seals
There are five main seals here at Rothera. The smallest are fur seals they are a lot like Labradors very excitable but too cute to be scary (until they start chasing you!).

Fur seal

Next in size is the crab eater seal. It doesn’t eat crabs but instead feasts on krill they sometimes travel in pods as many as eight together.

Crab eater seal (credit Jenny Douglas)

Weddell seals look like a typical seal big dark round eyes and a very large belly they stay around all year even when the sea ice covers the bay. Consequently, they usually pop up in the dive holes that are cut into the ice to get a breath of air.

Weddell seal with a skua

During summer adolescent elephant seals haul themselves up onto the base where they stay until they’ve moulted they are very smelly and create a lot of mess.

Elephant seals squeezing onto the wooden bridge on base

Last on the list is the leopard seal. Leps are true predators, with surprising agility for their size (adults are over 3m long). Because they are an apex predator we don’t dive when they are in the water nearby.

Leopard seal this one we found back in january it was well over 3m (credit Theresa Murphy)

Whales

Lately we have been getting lots of whales. With close encounters of both orca and humpbacks. Being on a boat less than 10m away from such magnificent animals is spectacular. The following photos were all taken on the same morning, we were out on the boats sampling but became a little bit distracted by orca and humpbacks... (thanks for the photos JenDoc!)

Orca going past while getting the boats ready to go out

Humpbacks visiting the guys out on Nimrod

Humpback

baby orca

we can count 11 orca in this single shot

This was taken earlier in the month Simon and I had been diving South Cove when Orca swam past the entrance to the cove we were immediately recalled to the surface where we followed them round the bay. Thanks to Steve for taking this great shot from the wharf

One of the best things to see on base, apart from the wildlife, is seeing people get excited by wildlife! If whales are seen close to the wharf an all stations is put out on the radios and within minutes people will be running from all over base to see the spectacle. Although the best place to watch is on the boats, something that always feels special.

Fossil Bluff- the unexpected gastronomic hub of the Antarctic

So this post will be about my incredible adventure out at Fossil Bluff.

You can just make out Bluebell cottage perched on the edge of the scree looking out over the George iv sound.

When I got offered the chance to go to Fossil Bluff I could not hide my excitement and I certainly couldn’t turn it down. Fossil Bluff is located on Alexandra Island over 200 miles south of Rothera the island itself is about the same size as Wales and has only one building, Bluebell cottage, which would be home for (Tom) Stoops and myself for a week. But why on earth were BAS sending these two twenty somethings to the remote wilderness of Antarctica. Well the purpose of Fossil Bluff is to act as a refuelling stop for planes heading from the interior back to Rothera or vice versa. This essentially involves giving hourly met obs, daily skiway reports (like a runway but on snow, the snow needs constant “grooming” to keep it level and safe for the pilots to land on) and refuelling any incoming planes.

refuelling a visiting Twin Otter 

We were blessed with good weather but more importantly fresh food! (For this reason this may turn into a bit of a food blog, sorry not sorry) Some of which was put together by Chef Trev from Rothera which I took down with me. So the first job on arrival was to discover what goodies we had been sent, our boxes consisted of: 6 chicken breast, 6 different blocks of cheese, a punnet of tomatoes, cucumbers, spring onions, aubergine, peppers, lettuce, apples grapes, garlic, ginger, tinned tomatoes, courgette, leeks, pears, Robinsons fruit and barley squash (Trev I am forever in your debt!). But more impressively, the day before I arrived the Union Glacier (over 600 miles away) kindly donated their surplus freshies. Which included grapefruits, grapes, oranges, nectarines, some fresh yogurt (something I hadn’t had since leaving the UK). This volume of fresh food left Stoops and I temporarily speechless. That did not last long, food quickly became the main topic of conversation and we strived to feast like Kings every day that we were there.

unpacking our freshies for the first time

So whilst the uk was suffering from a lettuce shortage!!?? (really?? This happened?) our first meal was a leafy salad with spring onions, bell peppers and cucumber polished off with a cheese and tomato salad and freshly baked bread.

The next morning, we had to get up for our early morning met ob (0700) but we were able to enjoy fruit salad with yogurt and muesli before rushing off to “work”, this consisted of a 2km scramble along scree and snow a couple of streams to jump across before a quick skidoo ride to the skiway. Where we busied ourselves with maintaining the fuel depot and the skiway itself. Before long our fisrt plane had landed been refuelled and sent on its way. With the day’s work done we could turn our attention to preparing our next dinner. To start we made bruschetta followed by chicken and leek pie with side salad which didn’t turn out too bad considering all we had to go on was a couple of primus stoves and a reflex heater.

The following day we had no planes but had to continue the obs for planes flying in the local area so we couldn’t stray too far but were not needed on the skiway so we had no choice but to spend the day in the “kitchen”. After Stoops had baked some more bread, I baked a victoria sponge with a thick layer of strawberry jam in the middle. This left us plenty of time to create an Indian banquet. And what a banquet it was with a chicken curry as the centre piece with onion bhajees, chapattis, raita dip and a selection of pickles and chutneys.

For breakfast on the third day we did branch out from fruit salad and treated ourselves to eggy bread. When we found out that it was going to be a no fly day due to bad weather elsewhere we decided to head up pyramid a reasonably accessible mountain visible from the cottage. Whilst everyone else was suffering poor weather we were hiking in shorts and t-shirt! When we got back we tried baking a cherry and apple crumble. This didn’t go as well as our previous endeavours and turned into more of a biscuit with jam mess.

coming back down after climbing pyramid, we had to call on the sat phone to give a met ob

Our next culinary success was a stir fry. A dish which became a staple during my last year at uni but something I had yet to experience in Antarctica. Needless to say it was delicious with fresh ginger, garlic, dried chillies and oyster sauce to season the chicken and veggies.

I think it is clear to see that we achieved our goal of feasting like kings! Although it was surprising just how refreshingly normal it felt to cook for myself again, in some ways life felt more normal being stuck out in a remote cottage than it did being on base with all the mod-cons. However, somethings were wonderfully bizarre. Listening to the true sound of silence will stay with me for a long time as well as the spectacular isolation we shared and the ever changing backdrop of ice and mountains.

flying lessons

I was definitely sad to leave the Bluff but that soon left me when we were up in the air banking around the mountains. There is nothing quite like being handed the controls of a twin otter and told by the pilot to wake them up when we’re home. I smiled the whole way back.

stunning views of the Western Antarctic Peninsula