Vacation

24/02/2007

The Larsemann Hills is a nice spot to visit if you ever get the chance. A splatter of mountains wedged between the coast and the ice plateau, about 100km from Davis Station. Helicopter is the best form of transport, flying over icebergs and huge crevasse fields, where the plateau runs into the ocean. Conveniently, Australia has a small field base setup in the hills. Law Base. This consists of two apple and three melon huts (named according to shape) and Reid hut. After spending some time in polar pyramids in the snow, huts are welcomed as luxury stye accommodation. Mattress beds, couches, dining table, gas stove, heater and electricity powered by generator. It all sounds pretty basic, which it is, but you don’t go on holidays to spend all your time in the hotel. You go on holidays for the adventure, to see something different, to see something amazing.

Your humble narrator visited Law Base under the guise of work. Two GPS units were set up over two survey marks in the hills and left to collect data for the week. I like to think that when the GPS are collecting data I am also working. We spent two full days in the Larsemann Hills even though it took a grand total of about two hours to install the GPS units. The rest of the time was spent exploring and having fun.

The Larsemann Hills could be considered a naturally formed amusement park. You can wander along beaches covered in ice, gaze at giant icebergs in the bay and listen to the penguins squawking out on the ice flows. You can walk over frozen lakes and smash ice shards watching them scatter in all different directions across the ice. You can sit by the edge of lakes and catch snow falling into your hands. You can edge your way through ice caves and admire the streams of water running from the ice melt. You can watch the sun set into the plateau and see the sky come alive with colour. You can scramble up rock faces and climb mountains. At the peak of each rise you can see even more beautiful sights and interesting areas to explore. You couldn’t help but feel completely free wandering around this place, going wherever you liked, walking towards whatever caught your eye. No restrictions, no time constraints, no worries.

An extra day was given to us in the hills due to the snow and poor visibility, preventing a helicopter from collecting us. We were well prepared for this scenario and had brought an abundance of alcohol. Although I do not drink often I do enjoy undertaking stupid behaviour in exotic locations. I had a long fight with the bottle and although the bottle was empty in the morning, based on the bruises and my aching head, I’d say the bottle won. The last time I woke up in such a condition I was in Germany. That day I travelled halfway across the country from Dresden to Munich with my head slumped against the cool train window watching the countryside blur by. This time I flew 100km along the coast of Antarctica over icebergs and crevasse fields with my head slumped against the cool helicopter window.

A week in pictures

17/02/2007

Every week I write another On Antarctica entry. I set aside the time on a Saturday and construct stories about my adventures for the week, including work related comments, jokes, movie and literature references and personal thoughts. Well, not this week. I'm sick of it. This week I'm simply going to give the fans what they want to see. Pictures. Look at the photos and make up your own stories. I'm having a week off. Enjoy.

Magnetic Island Penguin Colony

Minky Whale

One flew over the penguin rookery

10/02/2007

Another week surrounded by the crowding mass of yahoos within the confines of the asylum which is Davis station. A full week of work around station undertaking several different surveys. Activities performed included a reference mark survey of the permanent GPS station, levelling between tide gauge bench marks, GPS surveys, slushy work, an infrasound survey and a topographic feature survey as a favour for a biologist on station. It is all well and good to keep busy but one must keep in mind that ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES ALEX A DULL BOY.

Details of the general procedure and purpose of the geodetic survey work have already been documented in previous entries. The infrasound survey was done for some scientists at Geoscience Australia. Fancy equipment was setup in the nearby hills and left running all week. This equipment measures meteorological information such as wind speed and direction while taking extremely precise readings of changes in pressure through the use of a micro-barometer.

Although we have been particularly busy on station this week, a nutcase biologist also asked us to survey the old elephant seal wallow with the main feature of the survey being drill hole samples taken in deposits of seal fur. The biologists had drilled through metre high mounds which were made up of layer upon layer of seal fur, malted each year. A survey was requested to observe the position and height of the samples, with respect to each other, the surrounding wallow and water level on the nearby shore. The survey also provided them with a nice little map of the wallow. Of course, to perform the survey involved getting in amongst the colossal beasts, within biting distance, and who better to do that than your humble narrator. The wallow contained about 15 massive seals at the time of survey and I mean massive, some of them weigh several tonnes. There mass makes them pretty slow which was an advantage to the nimble footed surveyor, trying not to upset them too much and get away with his feet attached. Elephant seals aren’t the most modest creatures, constantly snorting, growling and lying around in their own filth. The wallow smells pretty bad as you might expect, comparable to the smell of tanning factories or abattoirs on a hot day, or the royal show. The seals aren’t the brightest animals either, with their thought processes not extending much beyond competing with each other for space. Fighting and confronting each other is just about all they do, practicing all their lives, starting from when they are pups. Despite all this the survey was completed successfully and the seals were quite good natured about my intrusion into their domain. I think some of the seals followed me back to Davis (like little lambs) and I can still hear them growling and snorting (not screaming) on the shore nearby my donga at night.

The Film Australia crew filming a documentary of the recreation of Mawson’s epic sledging trip by an Australian adventurer have returned to station. In Mawson’s adventure everything went wrong. One guy (Ninnis) fell down a crevasse along with most of the food. Mawson and Mertz continued on, resorting to eating their husky dogs for sustenance. Unfortunately, this led to Mertz getting Vitamin A poisoning from eating the dogs kidneys and he died also. Mawson managed to return to a station, although there has always been suspicion that he ate Mertz as a last resort in survival. Being out in the deep field in a small party of two or three you can’t help but think about these stories and imagine how you might handle a similar situation. I have often wondered what my fellow expeditioners might taste like, perhaps with farmer beans and a nice bottle of …

When we were in the deep field we had to melt snow for water. This is a slow process but at least you know where the water is from and that it is clean. On station the plumbers make the drinking water. They do this through a process called reverse osmosis in which sea water is forced through a membrane skin which extracts the salt from the water. I refuse to drink this water and am continuing to melt snow for my drinking water as I am convinced that there is a conspiracy on station in which the plumbers are trying to sap and impurify all of my precious bodily fluids. I will continue to deny them my essence.

My only break from the insanity of the crowd of people on station comes in the evenings when I walk down the wooden plank walkway to my donga, admiring the view of the sun setting over the icebergs in the harbour. I have taken great comfort in curling into bed each night with my good friend Robinson Crusoe and dreaming of a life of solitude.

Changing perspective

03/02/2007

I finally broke free from a week long sentence at Davis station which was extended due to bad weather. The original plan had a team of five people heading out into the deep field. However, the five quickly got reduced to two surveyors or geoscientists with an additional worker and two others, intending to tag along as a jolly, missing out due to weight restrictions and poor weather. A common situation in Antarctica where you have to change your plans at a moments notice. I went out to repair a GPS station and a geoscientist, Dan Zwartz, went to withdraw a seismic station. After waiting around on station it was the usual mad rush to get out into the field with a quick helicopter ride to the skiway over the Vestfold Hills and then straight into the CASA aircraft which flew us to our destination, the Grove Mountains.

The Groves are a large scattered group of mountains and nunataks (rock outcrops), located about 500km in land from Davis station with nothing but ice in between. The mountains are at an elevation of over 1800m and are considerably colder than anywhere else visited in the season. When you look at the location of the Groves on a map you realise they are in the absolute middle of nowhere. Brilliant! Another one of these spectacular places tucked away in one of the more remote parts of the planet. We flew through the mountains before landing and I couldn’t wait to get in amongst them.

On arrival at the site we found two quad bikes which had been left behind by a team the previous year. The quads were buried in snow and after digging them out we surprisingly managed to get them both started. One quad was taken back to Davis by the aircraft and the other was left with us for our work and recreational pleasure. We setup camp in the most sheltered area we could find, in the snow, at the base of a nunatak, on the edge of a glacier.

We were told we only had two days to complete our work before we would be collected by the aircraft and returned to station. This was barely enough time so we set to work straight away carting batteries and other heavy survey equipment up to the work site. This was made considerably easier with the use of the quad but still involved a significant climb over loose rocks and snow. I found the GPS station in relatively good condition with only minimal damage (wind turbine blades missing, one solar panel smashed) and the GPS receiver still working although the memory card was full as the site had not been visited for two years. Repairs were made and new equipment was installed at the site. A large amount of time was spent trying to establish communications with Canberra and after a lot of attempts, a comprehensive test of my patients and some colourful language on top of a mountain, data was successfully downloaded out of the receiver from Canberra, via satellite phone. The GPS station was completely rebuilt and in good working order within the two days we were provided. Of course, once the work was done the weather turned nasty and we were stranded in the mountains for an additional two days.

Being absolutely exhausted after two days working flat out in the freezing cold I had no problem filling in the time with sleep and lying around in the tent. Dan actually managed to spend 36 hours straight in his sleeping bag, a personal best time and an achievement he was quite proud of. Luckily Dan and I get along quite well and can both tolerate each others stirring. We filled in time between essential activities such as sleeping and cooking with sharing of stories, telling bad jokes, describing what we would prefer to be having for dinner and by singing songs making up new lyrics as we went along.

Although the weather was the worst I had experienced in the field this season, I still got out for a few short walks around the local area. It was so cold that I had icicles (or snot-cicles) forming in what can now actually be described as a beard. We took the quad for a ride on the blue ice of the glacier along the edge of the moraine (debris trail of rocks in the snow). With the strong wind, the speed of the bike and no helmets this was a quick and easy way of freezing our faces. Great fun! The wind was consistently blowing the entire time we were out there although when it eased the sound of the glacier popping and cracking was all around us. Hearing these sounds is an amazing sensation. Sometimes it sounded like it was cracking directly beneath our camp. What a sound to listen to as you drift off to sleep.

It was nice to just sit and admire the scenery. A huge ice sheet, mountains of all different shapes and sizes, snow blowing across the glacier at foot level and off the mountains in huge walls of spray, and the forever changing sky. The sun didn’t set while we were out, but it dipped close to the horizon. The effect of the light on the surrounding landscape during this part of the day was absolutely beautiful. This amazing environment is forever changing, it might not change much but everyday and throughout the cycle of a day it can look completely different. Maybe this impression was added to by my changing perspective over the course of the journey. Initially I was a little occupied with getting my work done and had to remind myself to take a break and look around at the sights before me. I definitely took more time to appreciate the surroundings once my work was successfully completed. It is a truly awesome experience sitting alone on top of a mountain admiring the spectacle that is this extraordinary place. I recommend you embrace it when you get the chance.