Tuesday 15 December 2009

A Busy Time, On Base And Off....

Yet again, it's been a while since I last posted an update. Time just flies past so very quickly these days. Of course, now that the summer season is in full swing the pace of life has accelerated accordingly.

Firstly... the 2009 wintering team's Winter Photo has been published and now hangs proudly in the New Bransfield House lounge.















What a mottley crew we are.... (or rather, were.... the winter is over now).


During the winter the atmosphere on base was very laid back. We all had plenty of work to keep us occupied, but with half the base closed up and winterised and only 21 of us on station, Rothera had transcended into a sleepy little village. Now, with almost 100 people on base all rushing around trying to get as much done as possible during the 5-month summer, Rothera has transformed into a hustling, bustling metropolis. There are all manner of vehicles whizzing round all over the place and people going about their business with a purpose. Everywhere you look there are new names and new faces, and it isn't always easy to match one with the other. But Rothera is, perhaps, the friendliest place on the planet; it doesn't matter if you don't recognise the face or you don't know the name - strangers don't stay strangers for long here.
There is always someone interesting to talk to, whether they are seasoned FIDs returning for yet another season, or someone just having their first experience in Antarctica. The newbies are, of course, the easiest to spot - they are the ones with wide eyes and open mouths, transfixed in a hypnotic trance, looking around and going "Oh.....Wowwwwww.....!!!!!"
Just over a year ago I was just like that. Come to think of it - I still am!!! I still look around and chuckle to myself and think how very lucky I am. I haven't yet tired of this place; I haven't yet lost the "wow-factor". Antarctica still takes my breath away.

Lots of exciting things happen during the summertime, the best being that the planes are flying again. And that means that I get to be a co-pilot again.

















So far, I've been on two depot drops to the Larsen Ice Shelf, flying over the spectacular mountains of the Antarctic peninsula and yes, I got to fly again - hee hee heeeee!!! Back in the UK I'd make deliveries in a van - down here I do it in a Twin Otter. And the view out the window is so much better than anything the M25 can offer!!!!

















Oh, it's a hard life down here.....!!!!


















If the flight over the mountains was spectacular, the campsite where the scientists and GAs would be living for up to twelve weeks was a complete contrast.




















Antarctica is a hostile and dangerous environment to work in. This photo shows quite clearly the crevasses on the glacier. But not all the crevasses are clear to see. It is the ones that you can't see because they are covered by snow bridges that pose the greatest threat to us.

















Being high in the sky gave me another opportunity to see Rothera from a different perspective. These photos show just how small our Antarctic home really is.













































The summer also means a return to 24-hour daylight. This is a photo of one of our last sunsets....
















... the sun no longer drops below the southern horizon. It will be February before we see the night sky again.

Towards the end of November I was told that I was going to be sent out to man one of our deep field stations. As is typical here, it would be for an unspecified time, but they couldn't tell me when I would be going, or which depot I would be sent to.
Eventually, it was decided that I'd be going to Fossil Bluff.
Yessssssss!!!!!!!!!!
Followers of this blog may remember that I spent some time at the Bluff last summer and I loved it there ("A Lot Has Happened...", January 2009). It is my most favourite place that I've been to since I've been in Antarctica, although to be honest, I haven't really been to many other places yet.
I packed a bag in readiness because I know that things happen very quickly here.
Things also change quickly, too. Twice I was told that I'd be leaving in the morning, but we were unable to fly because the weather crapped out. Hmmm...... frustrating!!!
The third time I had just one hour's notice to be ready to fly. It's just as well I'd packed that bag!!!


The Fossil Bluff forward logistic station (latitude 71°20' S, longitude 68°17' W) was established on Alexander Island in 1961. It is about 225 miles south of Rothera, about 1 hour 50 minutes flying time away and again, I flew for some of the way there. I would be relieving Riet van der Velde, who had been there for the last 10 days, and sharing the cabin and the work duties with Keith Waddell, who was new to Antarctica.

















Living at Fossil Bluff is like stepping back in time; the cabin has hardly changed since it was built in 1961. The hut itself is painted red, but was affectionately named "Bluebell Cottage" by it's first inhabitants.... Hmmmmm...!!! I don't know the significance of the reference to bluebells - there aren't any here; in fact there aren't any anywhere in Antarctica!!
(Trivial factoid here: there are no trees or plants at all in Antarctica, apart from some hardy species of moss and lichen which are found only in coastal areas or on some of the many islands around the continent.)

Inside the cabin I quickly settled in and made myself at home. Ahhhh - it was good to be back.
















But manning the deep-field stations isn't a holiday; first and foremost,we have to work. Responsibilities (in no particular order) include:

Sending hourly "Met Obs" (Meteorological Observations) via the HF radio...















Met obs every hour are vital for the pilots because the weather can change so very quickly. The Bluff is an important way point and potential refuge for planes flying further south or depoting science projects on the nearby peninsula. On busy flying days we were averaging 11 hourly obs a day, and on the longest day we did 16!!


Refuelling the planes...















The skiway, where the planes take off land, is run just like any normal aerodrome, with safety procedures and fire precautions strictly adhered to, so not only was I a filling station forecourt attendant, I was also a fireman, paramedic and.... tea-boy!!


Organising the fuel depot...

















Don't let the t-shirt and shorts fool you - it was actually minus 8C that day!!!
Because the air is so dry and there was little or no wind it was surprisingly comfortable.
The depot has to be organised so that the fuel drums are readily accessible to enable a quick turnaround when the planes come in.
But we don't have glorious weather every day. Sometimes it snows - well, what did you expect??? And when it snows we have to... yup - we have to dig!!!!
















All the barrels and any equipment such as fuel pumps and fire sledge, all have to be dug out and re-sited on top of the newly deposited snow. This is known as "raising the depot".

There are also some periods of prolonged inactivity whilst we are waiting for the next plane to arrive....
















When the flying finishes for the day it's back to the hut for some dinner. Unlike at Rothera, where there are world-class chefs and professional caterers to feed us, we have to cook ourselves!
There are usually only two of us manning the station so cooking isn't really a major problem, but because of the changeable weather, on three occasions we had planes making an overnight stay, and one team actually stayed over for two nights!!

Cooking at the Bluff isn't always the easiest of tasks - there is only a stove with a single hotplate, and a single-burner kerosene stove, better known as a Primus stove. But in spite of this, everyone was well fed. I even baked bread - not easy with no oven, but, using some pots and pans a bit of ingenuity I managed to create an "oven" of sorts.
This was the end result...















...and very tasty it was, too.


For some reason, my banoffee pie was also very popular...
















After dinner was usually when we'd go out exploring - weather permitting, of course. With 24-hour daylight, we didn't have to worry about it getting dark.
One fine, bright evening Keith and I decided that we'd climb some of the local peaks. First off, we attempted The Sphinx...















I'm not much of a climber, but Keith has a lot of Alpine experience. After a couple of hours of frantic scrambling we made it to the summit.

The view across the permanently frozen King George IV Sound was just breathtaking and well-worth the effort of the climb...
















We sat on the summit for almost an hour eating Mars bars and drinking ice-cold glacial water that we'd collected on the way up and chilled out for a while in the total and absolute silence of Antarctica.

Fully rested and refreshed after our exersions we decided to attempt the magnificent and mighty... Pyramid!!

This photo (below) shows Pyramid towering above Bluebell Cottage...

















... and this next one shows Pyramid from a different angle...















...if you click on the photo to enlarge it, Bluebell Cottage can just be seen as the red splodge in the foreground. The blue building is the garage/workshop and the red, white and blue building is Tesco's, our food and provisions store.

Unfortunately, I didn't quite make it to the top of Pyramid; the final push was a bit too technical for my limited climbing skills. We got to the highest plateau just below and to the right of the summit (see the photo above), and that was good enough for me.

If the weather wasn't good enough to go exploring or climbing I'd occupy my time sitting out on the veranda playing my harmonica...















... and chatting to my old mate George...

















... the skua I befriended last time I stayed at the Bluff.
It was good to see him again.

One day, when we'd had a delivery of food and provisions, I found some mail addressed to me. The plane crew had found my mail back at Rothera and kindly decided to bring it down for me.
You cannot imagine how it felt to be living in a vast, barren wilderness, hundreds of miles from anywhere, opening real envelopes! What a joy it was!
















The mail turned out to be birthday cards that hadn't been delivered in time for my birthday. But it didn't matter - Alexander Island is approximately the size of Wales, and Keith and I were the only two people there.... and I was getting mail!!!
Brilliant!!!

















After two fantastic weeks at Fossil Bluff I finally got the call to return to Rothera. With much sadness I said goodbye to Keith, George and Gordon (who came out to replace me) and climbed aboard the plane. But hey - that meant I could fly again...
















I got back to Rothera to find that things had changed a bit in the fortnight that I'd been gone - much of the snow around the base had melted, and more new faces had arrived; some had flown in and others had travelled down from the Falklands on the RRS James Clark Ross, one of BAS's ships.
















This photo was taken during the JCR's second visit.

Christmas and New Year are only a short while away now, and then it will be the final countdown to my departure from here and my return to the UK.

There - you are up to date now...