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.
No comments:
Post a Comment