Field Training (part 2)

Off on another trudge around the island! The crew for the first day is Jane, Luke, Dean, Ben and myself (photos of various individuals to appear whenever). This time we took the east coast to Brothers Point, which was the reverse of the final stage of part 1, and continued overland to Green Gorge for the evening. Up to this point Green Gorge is the furthest south I've ever been and is approximately half way down the island on the east coast. This route took us past the King penguin colony on Sandy Bay (again) and this time they were extremely inquisitive and interested in these two legged things carrying their house on their back.

These penguins were playing paint ball

"What are you?" - also Dean is in the background doing some work in the old hut

Preening

These guys thought Ben looked rather interesting

Luke and Jane sitting in Green Gorge hut

Day 2 saw Ben, Luke and myself set cross country towards the west coast. Luke being a former Head Ranger here had a fairly good idea where we were going, but it was up to Ben and me to follow the map, compass and GPS to make sure we didn't get lost. There were a few times when, especially in the low cloud, we walked too far north or south, but we found our way in the end. When walking coast to coast on Macca, unless you're on the isthmus, the only way to go is up and over the plateau. All well and good when you can see what you're doing, however 40kts headwinds and low cloud make walking all the more difficult. That made the fun part getting off the plateau by essentially walking down the side of a cliff and the scree slope on the way....

We travelled north on the featherbed to Bauer Bay Links Hotel (take a look at part 1 for photos), where Louise came to meet us and we stayed the night there. Next day Ben and me left Luke and Louise to return to base by walking along the featherbed to the north of Bauer Bay. This area is only open during a short period in winter, so we were taking every opportunity to cover as much of the island as is possible.

Looking south on the west cost towards Bauer Bay (and Eagle Cave). The escarpment is appearing from low cloud (where we had visibility of about 500m) and the area between the escarpment and the sea is the featherbed (not your ordinary grassy plain)

Until next time...