As I get up every morning I draw my curtain and look out to see what has changed in the night. It is a view in fairly constant flux, notwithstanding the mountains in the way.
Directly below my window is a pebble beach about 10m wide at low tide. It is flat at the top and slops down to the water. Sprinkled on this beach are a good number of Elephant seals, down my end mainly weaners but up by the kitchen is a popular spot with the males and their harems. There is generally one beach master around and he sees off any competition. It can be quite disconcerting trying to eat breakfast and to hear world ending roaring coming from right outside. Generally at that point everyone in the dining room gets up and goes to the picture windows with their toast or tea and eats while watching the spectacle. We haven’t yet taken sides but it is only a matter of time. One of my favourite things to watch are the ‘high speed’ water chases. They generally start with a ‘Young Turk’ lurking in the shallows near the harem. When the beach master goes off to tend to one of his females the other side or to see off another contender this ‘Young Turk’ shoots up the beach. Now when I say ‘shoots’ he moves as fast as he can with waves of fat rolling up his body as he flings himself worm fashion along the pebbles. It is usually about now that the beach master notices and ‘shoots’ back across the beach to see this intruder off. This generally involves him scattering his females as he hustles through them. The intruder makes it to the water ‘swiftly’ followed by the beach master and then an underwater chase ensues. You can't see through the water but you know where they are even when submerged because of the bowwave they throw up as they go. It really is rather exciting to watch; but back to the view.
As I said, up my end of the beach there are no beach masters but there are weaners dotted here and there and in between them at the moment are Fur Seal males which have come ashore to gain their territories. Unfortunately the presence of these Furries does make opening one's window a gamble depending on the direction of the wind. They emit the most offensive smell, as I have described before, and to have it wafting in your room while trying to sleep is intolerable.
The beach below my window leads on to King Edward Cove which runs off from Cumberland Bay East. Across the cove is another beach and above that is a short sharp rise to Brown Flats. This is a boggy wet area below Brown Mountain which is the first thing I generally see in the morning. This is a longish low mountain which is a fairly easy day trip to do. At the bottom of the shoulder of Brown Mountain is an area of Tussock grass and then Penguin River. This runs through Hestesletten (a flat glacial plain) from the Hamburg Lakes which in turn are fed by Hamburg Glacier which is a hanging glacier. Along the beach from Penguin River one comes to Discovery Point which is one side of the entrance to Moraine Fjord. Just off this point lies the wreck of the Maresco a fishing vessel that foundered there. There is another fishing vessel, the Lyn, which foundered on the other side of the entrance to Moraine Fjord, Dartmouth Point.
The daily changes in my view are caused by a number of different things. There is the wildlife which changes hourly but currently is mainly based around weaners and Furries. There is the snow and its presence or disappearance as dictated by the weather. Apparently the weather we are having at the moment is extremely unseasonal with incredibly strong winds (105kts recorded in the bay next to ours)and snow. This has meant that the flanks of Brown Mountain will have snow on them one day and then none the next and then a sprinkling laid on over night. Another thing that regularly changes is the presence of ice. The Harker glacier calves into Moraine Fjord and large chunks of ice are blown out regularly. They can then stick on the bottom and disintegrate slowly or be blown off out to sea. There is one across the bay currently which has the silhouette of a destroyer and when the sun hits it it glints in varying shades of brilliant blue.
I consider myself incredibly lucky to be able to wake up everyday, open my curtain and look on all of this, hopefully the changes will continue at this rate and I will continue to be as appreciative of it in a year as I am now.
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| KEP from the Pharos |
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| The view from my window |
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