Winter is here!

The Shackleton arrived last week and after almost a week of moving cargo it left on Sunday. Leaving just 22 of us alone on Adelaide Island, until late October, when the planes will return and the summer season will begin.

Winter Team 2017 left to right: Tom Sylvester, Julie Baum, Matt (Mabell) Bell, Trev Hancock, Theresa Murphy, Matt (Denzel) Washington, Zac Priestly, Ben (BB) Robinson, Dan (Rio) Duran, Mairi (Maz) Simms, Joe Burton, Alan Messenger, Ben Keich, Will Van de Wouw, myself, Steve, Jenny (JenDoc) Douglas, Braddley (Bradders aka Mr Tickle) Morrell, Neil (Brownie) Brown, Mike (Mucky) Bell, Paul Samways, Blair Fyffe.

Our group photo was taken just after the Shack had left, the first time the group had been alone together as you can imagine it took several attempts to get the official shot although I much prefer this one, it is definitely a better representation!

Relief was very busy but we were lucky with the weather which allowed for some great photo opportunities!

Theresa managed to catch Saz Joe and I hauling on the mooring lines from the bridge

arty shot from Kate

It was strange to see everyone pack up with bags and boxes appearing in every free space. But it was also very exciting as the prospect of winter drew closer.

While the ship sailed away we made good use of all the out of date flares.

The first week of winter was filled with a full base scrubout which was a good way to give us a fresh start before cracking on with the winter work.

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

Christmas and New Year

Being so busy and very much in the Antarctic bubble it was hard to remember that Christmas was just a couple of days away. However, the base got into the festive spirit after Friday scrubout (mid-afternoon on a Friday, everyone gets assigned to a building where there’s an hour of cleaning) all of us at the Bonner lab sat out on the snow beside the runway eating cheese and biscuits washed down with bevvies. Being Christmas Eve Eve everyone got together in the bar to compete in a pub quiz. Our team was pretty successful and won the mystery prize as well as coming in 2^nd.

On Christmas Eve a group of us set out on a hike along the top of Reptile, which was spectacular. In the evening our energy was restored with a delicious buffet spread up in the bar (where had the chefs been hiding whole salmon?).  The evening’s entertainment was Christmas karaoke, some people had better singing voices than others (ha-hem Browny).

Chefs Rob, Trev and Lewis with their Christmas Eve Buffet (photo Kate Stanton)

Christmas morning was nice and relaxed after opening some presents from home (thank you very much to all who sent me off with a gift!) I wondered across to NBH to help JenDoc with her tradition of completing a jigsaw puzzle on Christmas day (as a suggestion for next year maybe pick something easier than where’s wally) the chefs provided a hearty brunch to see us through until dinner time. Dinner was everything you could hope for on Christmas day, with soup to start, turkey with all the trimmings followed by Christmas pudding, cake and cheese for afters (which was an incredible achievement as the JCR had yet to show up with our new supplies for the coming season).

Christmas Dinner! (Photo Kate Stanton)

After dinner a group of us went up to the ops tower (more commonly known as the Eye of Sauron) to sing some Christmas carols to the teams out in the field we think it was appreciated although our tuneful singing may have become distorted over the radio…

Christmas Carols in the ops tower: Saz, Jen, Ali, Kirsten, Em, JenDoc, Me and Emma (Photo Kate Stanton)

On boxing day, I had a go at skiing for the first time. JenDoc and Julie took me along the traverse to the caboose on cross country skis it was great fun. By the time we were heading back I was getting the hang of it, or at least until Julie said as much, at which point I instantly landed head first in the snow. The following day was my first day at work, but I will talk about that at another time as the following weekend was New Year’s Eve. Due to a medical complaint the American RV Nathaniel B. Palmer had to call in on NYE, which made for a not so relaxed start to the bank holiday weekend. It was my first experience of mooring a ship but thankfully everything went smoothly and we got the chance to look round her once she was alongside.

Saz with the Palmer

Successful first mooring!

The arrival of the Palmer was not going to get in the way of tradition so as soon as we had finished mooring and donned our running gear we were ready to take part in the traditional Rothera New year’s eve 10k, I’m pleased to say that we were joined by some of the crew from the Palmer. Although I was aware that the run was happening I wasn’t intending to take part. But when people said they were just going to do 5k I thought that may be doable so I decided to give it a go. 5k later I still felt reasonably good and after being egged on by people at the finish line I continued to complete the full 10k so can someone please, please, remind me to train next year as it was painful at the end! Although I somehow managed to finish in 1h06m?!? After Saz had picked me up off the finish line we had to rush to get warm clothes on so that we could cast off the Palmer and continue celebrating the new year.

Our loyal supporters (photo Pablo from the Palmer)

Finally at the finish line! (photo Pablo from the Palmer)

5 seconds after finishing (photo Pablo from the Palmer)

First days at Rothera

Flying in on the Dash 7 was not your average flight. With the freedom to wonder around, make your own hot drinks and chat to the pilots made a welcome relief from the crammed commercial flights we had previously been on. It was cloudy until our final decent where we dropped below the clouds and got stunning views of Adelaide Island and the extensive sea ice.

inside the dash

It was pretty surreal wondering around the base and trying to understand that I was finally in Antarctica. This was made harder by the fact that that it was uncharacteristically hot (4℃) and sunny, the air in Antarctica is also very dry (it’s the driest continent on earth) which means you can become dehydrated very quickly.

sea ice near Rothera

Being the run up to Christmas every night this week has been a movie night with a choice of two films to watch. When we arrived Elf was being shown in the Fuchs loft. Fuchs is the field guides’ building and in the loft is where all the sleeping gear is stored which had been arranged in rows and draped with sheepskins to make for a very cosy viewing and a relaxed end to my first day.

Gator buggies

The following day was packed with various bits of training including field medical box training, living and working around aircraft and a vehicle familiarisation. The vehicle familiarisation was good fun we got to take the gator buggies for a spin before going over to the ski ramp where we learnt how to use the skidoos which enabled us to take in the view of the base and surrounding mountains for the first time.

Skidoo at the top of the ramp

Thursday was the start of our field training in the morning we got to grips with the primus stoves and tilly lamps before getting kit together for our first overnight trip. After lunch we loaded up the snowcat and drove up the ramp and across to the caboose (small overnight hut) which is out of sight of the base. Our first job was to pitch the pyramid tent, despite being up in the mountains it was still really hot so we took a break in the caboose and had a drink before setting out to complete our training. We walked to a snow scoop which provided a steep slope to practice using our snow axes and crampons. It was really refreshing to be out walking around after being cooped up on the flights south, despite working hard I felt the most energised since being south.

Charlie, Hully and me in front of the snowcat

field practice 

We headed back to the Caboose at 1900 where we cooked a dinner of cheesy tuna pasta we managed to chat away until we realised it was 2300. Time is a strange concept at the moment with 24 hours of sunshine it is impossible to judge the time of day and you can easily stay up until the early hours without even noticing. The only thing that does mark the passage of time is the regularity of meals, during the day you are never more than 3 hours away from your next meal. The three usual meals are split by a morning and afternoon smoko (the term for a glorified tea break, in the morning soup is always on offer and in the afternoon there is sometimes biscuits if not toast and cereal are always available). After realising the time, we decided to turn in for the night. Due to the weather being so pleasant, we all opted to bivy out on the snow instead.

bivying out

pyramid tent and caboose

It was probably the best night sleep I had had since being at Rothera mainly because of the sleeping gear we were provided with. All of your sleeping equipment gets put in to your own “p bag” for the entirety of your time south. It contains a foam roll mat, an inflatable thermarest, a sheepskin, a fleece liner, a cotton liner, a very thick down sleeping bag and a waterproof bivy bag. Which was more than warm enough out on the snow. The only thing to get used to was the silence and it was truly silent the smallest rustle was deafening.

sleeping system

After breakfast we made our way back down to base where we sorted the gear out. Teresa and I had the afternoon free so we got Denzel, the vehicle mech to teach us how to drive the tractors which are used to move the boats around base. Which was great fun and a lot easier than driving a car. It’ll be hard to go back to the uk where you need a licence to drive! My training is all complete now and I will be starting work after boxing day.

Flying South for Winter

Getting to Antarctica is a bit of a mission in itself.  Unsurprisingly you can’t just jump on to a direct flight from Heathrow to the South Pole (this is probably a good thing as it holds back the hordes of adventure seeking tourists), instead you (and your luggage) have to survive four separate flights (Heathrow, Madrid, Santiago, Punta Arenas, Rothera), a journey which started mid-afternoon on the 18^th and has so far taken over 24 hours and as far as Punta at the southern tip of Chile. We now have a one night stop over to eat, sleep and freshen up before we throw ourselves off the end of South America and into the adventures that lie in wait.

Santiago, with the snow capped mountains just peaking above the mist and smog

Despite the journey consisting of a lot of long and tedious ques, turns out the weekend before Christmas is a busy time to fly, there were some spectacular aerial views. Some of the best were during our twelve hour flight to Santiago, which included lightning displays over Brazil and soaring straight over the top of the Andes. We then proceeded to follow the Andes south to Punta no need for inflight entertainment when you can gaze across the vast ranges and pick out volcanoes some covered in snow others spewing out ash and smoke. The further south we flew the greener the land became and we eventually touched down in Punta getting a good view of the Dash 7 which will take us on our final leg to Rothera.

Smoking volcano

This fails to capture the epic scale of the mountains

We now have to wait for the all clear to fly, which is mainly dependant on weather a factor which can cause you to be delayed for a week but hopefully the weather gods will be on our side and we will be departing this morning (now the 20^th).