The Last Big Trek, part 2

At Green Gorge I was greeted by Doggo (luckily, wearing clothes), a movie and many, many snacks. Julia joined us on her way back to station after two weeks at Hurd Point bothering large birds (albatross) and Claudia arrived later on her way from station to the southern section of the island to get those rabbits. Claudia and myself had brought in meat in various forms and others had left some on their way through, so dinner that night was a lovely mix of pork chops with various sauces and pineapple pieces - yum!

I spent the evening playing with the 50mm lens and looking for more aurora to match the previous night. Alas, while there was aurora, it was nowhere near as brilliant as the night night before. An enjoyable night was had by all and the morning started at around 6am when Doggo got up to go hunting for the day. This may not seem such a great time when on holiday, but it does make the afternoon nap more engrossing. Tony and Jaimie turned up at various times and stayed that night in the hut, while Stumpy made a pit stop on his way through.

Doggo

Look at all them stars

Next morning I was the last out of bed and last out of the hut, making my way further down island (in wonderfully horrible conditions) to Waterfall Bay Hut.

Penguins hanging around the hut

Secretly, they wanted to steal all the food

The Last Big Trek, part 1

As the time here draws closer and closer to the end, there's the last adventures people are taking and for as long as possible. I walked off station on the 16th, returned on the 23rd and had a fantastic and relaxing time out there. I think I'll be able to have one or two nights out there, but no more long trips for me. As it turns out, we won't be having any recreational trips off station between the end of Easter and whenever the ship arrives (which looks like it might be late)...

Anyway, on to the story, which starts on a crappy day where the wind was out of the Northwest and the cloud was low. I had a few jobs to sort out around station in the morning and didn't leave until after lunch, but luckily was only going over to Bauer Bay Hut - the nearest hut to station on the western side and only a short 2hr walk away. As I wandered along enjoying the blasts of wind, the rain started up and soaked me right through. Good thing the walking kept the heat up. On arrival at the hut, dog handler Melissa greeted me with a hug and snack of popcorn, she then proceeded to kick my arse at cribbage (one of the favourite card games for the year). Dinner was fried tofu, cheese and beans wrapped in tortillas - as you may have guessed, after a year of heavy use, the field huts are either running low on food stocks or the hunters have started to inventive with the selection.

The next morning Mel went to work, looking for those wascally wabbits and I took it easy in the hut. Breakfast was scrambled eggs on toast, however as there's certain foods not allowed in the field and eggs are one of them, I had to make do with powdered eggs and powdered milk (just add water!). If I were to try this again, I wouldn't have added so much water. For the rest of the day I read through most of a book of short stories about murder, all collected by Alfred Hitchcock; wandered around the beach and took photos; played the hut guitar (not that I know what I'm doing with it - there's another guitar at Green Gorge); played my harmonica; worked through an Italian grammar book (which is going fairly poorly) and had a nap in the middle of it all.

Ocean, having a bit of play

Bauer Bay, looking North to Douglas point

Robbie and Lisa (the newest expeditioners) arrived from station later in the afternoon and we started the evening off with more popcorn plus M&M's and lots of talking and a maybe some beers in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. We then ran around at sunset taking photos in the very pretty light and finished the night off with another big aurora. Dinner was a combination of more popcorn some time around 9pm and a steak and kidney pie-in-a-tin at around midnight. What does a pie-in-a-tin look like? Use Google to find Fray Bentos. What does it taste like? Pestilence. No, in all seriousness, they're not that bad, but they're not that good either. They're pretty greasy, the pastry is fairly poor and mushy and they need a bit of dressing up to make them bearable.

A pretty sunset

A skua tried to eat my head while it was in flight.

More sunset

Look at those penguins having a great time in the nice evening weather

Aurora

 

And more aurora. Did you see this?

Next day was pikelets for breakfast, made by Robbie and a nice dawdle over to Green Gorge hut. Robbie was kind enough to lend me a 30yr old 50mm Pentax lens for the rest of the trip, which happened to fit my camera perfectly. And the stay at Green Gorge will be the next post, probably tomorrow or the day after.

Winding Down, Speeding Up

With about 4 1/2 5 1/2 weeks until the ship arrives - is that all??? - we're starting to get into resupply mode. The Met office and the various buildings housing experiments we look after are being cleaned, tidied and made ready for new occupants. We're planning final field trips around the island - I'll be heading out on Friday for a week - and enjoying our time here as much as possible with so little left. I went off station for one night at Brothers Point last Friday and was lucky enough to have the hut to myself. This is a very rare occurrence considering the number of people based in the field.

Some have started to book holidays or, for those coming off contract, employment. I've put in an application to go south again (it's kinda fun down here) and if that falls through, then... I don't know and I don't think that it's all that important. Either way, I'm going to visit a few people around the world and reacquaint with society.

In the mean time, we're keeping a careful watch for aurora and had a fairly good one last night. Hopefully there'll be better ones over the next few weeks.

We couldn't see the aurora this well with the naked eye, the moon was very bright and dulling the effects

It even started to get a bit of red in it. How pretty :)

Circumnavigation

Yesterday we were lucky enough to have suitable weather for an island circumnavigation. Ordinarily the winds and seas are way too high for our little IRBs. Being able to see the west coast was a little bit special as most of it is closed for most of the year - unless someone has the necessary permits to enter these areas for work purposes. I was in the fun boat with Admiral Tim, Lieutenant Claudia and Cabin Boy Trev.

Here's a few photos of the trip, all photos courtesy of Claudia.

Launching out of Green Gorge

Rock stacks at the southern end

Cliffs near Windsor Bay

Fancy a walk?

We're too sexy for these suits

Caroline Cove is obscured by three funny looking people in a boat

Me, Tim and Trev

Tim and Claudia with Bauer Bay in the background

Wheeee!

The crew rounding Handspike, heading north towards station

The little boat floated across the sea, exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't