Holidays

Last Monday I had the odd feeling of being left behind while the boats went and collected Andy Black and Jen from Carlitta. They have been working on the reindeer project and were the last ones to come out of the field. I was able to be left behind because we had signed both Rod and Joe off as RIB coxes last week. That gives us three RIB coxes (Erny is also one). I stayed behind to prepare for my working holiday. We had to get all the kit together and then biosecure it (we have to do that every time we leave the Thatcher peninsula to go to another one in the area). While I was preparing I also had to lift an engine that the military had lent us onto the Clyde so she could take it back to Stanley. Lifting something onto a warship with a JCB when you don’t know the people giving you directions can be a slightly nervous affair but we managed it and in the end I don’t think I looked as nervous as the operations officer who had sanctioned it.

Daniel, Kelvin and I left base on the boats in the afternoon and were dropped off at Sorling. It was quite an odd feeling to be the passenger on board for once and to see the boats roar off into the distance while we were left standing on the beach. After settling our stuff into the hut and a cup of tea we decided to walk over to the Nordenskold glacier to have a little look at it. The walk along the coast was lovely and we even saw some reindeer. They were the first that Daniel had seen and he was quite excited. We walked all the way up to the glacier as far as we could go. Kelvin said that the side (which often retreats quicker than the middle) had retreated by about 100m since last year when he was here. It was a little surreal to be sitting watching this glacier calve in front of us with our backs to a wall of ice that was dripping rather fast. We climbed on the scree above the glacier and saw the inside of the glacier, a view which from the boats and the shore we never see due to the angle. It was quite impressive. It is not a calm glacier, there are many, many ridges and crevasses and it is a confused jumble of blue and black ice. Beautiful but not inviting in the slightest. 

Nordenskold Glacier

 Once we had had enough of looking into the interior of the island we walked home. The shore is littered with whale bones washed up from the operations in Grytviken. There was one pelvis bone that was as long as me and when lying horizontally on the ground came up to my waist. The size of the whale from which that came must have been incredible. We had a lovely evening eating supper and watching the light of the full moon rise on the bergs. We couldn’t see the moon itself since it was behind the mountains to our back but the light on the bergs in front was glorious. We also saw the lights from the base, a very homely sight. Kelvin showed me how to find the Southern Cross and from there how to use it to find south. It is a rather more complicated method that using the North Star to find north but now at least I know. We hit the sack early because we had a long day the next day but the light from the moon kept us company all night. 

Sunset

Cooking in the hut

On Tuesday morning we awoke at 0545 and went outside to see the light of the rising sun shining strong on the hills with the moon over them. There was not a cloud in the sky and a bright bright day with air so clear you could drink it. 

Good morning!

We gobbled breakfast and then headed up the valley to climb the pass to Ocean Harbour. As soon as we came out of the bay the sun shone strong in our faces and we had to remove several layers of clothing. That walk was actually very very hot and we all regretted our thermal layers in the end. We kept to the side slopes of the valley in order to stay out of the wet bottom and pulled our way up the slope to the pass which is a low one at 250m. Once at the pass we stopped for a break and caught our first sight of Ocean Harbour. It is a smallish harbour, quite thin with a three masted steel hulk still lying on the shore where she was left in the ‘30’s when the station was decommissioned. The route that we had just walked was actually a very common one. There was a hut in Sorling, where we had spent the night, which was manned by a chap who would be brought post and some supplies from Grytviken and he would walk it over to Ocean Harbour for the whalers over there. 

Ocean Harbour

We descended into the valley and about half way down stopped and sprayed some sheep sorrel (an invasive species) that has colonised that area. We left a blue patch on the hill to show where we were spraying but it was funny to look up from the harbour and to see it there. Once we had done that we dropped into the harbour. From the shore there is a large, wide area of grass with a river running through it that goes a fair way back from the sea until it hits the sheer feet of the mountains that surround the bay. From above it reminded me of bays I have seen in Cornwall. 

There is an abandoned building (it looks like it might have been a shower block) in the middle of the open space so we made that our base. Kelvin went off and sprayed stuff and Daniel and I were left to have a look around the place. As I said Ocean Harbour was decommissioned in the ‘30’s and equipment was taken from it to supply the other whaling stations so it was left pretty clear of any infrastructure but there was still the foundations of buildings and even some lamp posts. There were also bits of machinery and an old steam train rusting on its side with coal still in its bunker.

Old Steam Train

 The place was also heaving with seals large and small. Luckily we are no longer in breeding season so the big males have gone and the whole atmosphere was rather relaxed, or as relaxed as it can be with seals. From the steam engine we walked across the black sanded beach to the other side of the cove. It was rather odd to be walking on sand since most beaches round here are rocky. The black sand reminded me of Iceland with its volcanic soils. Pat the GO wanted pictures of the graveyard for the heritage project so we went in search of that. We found only two wooden crosses still standing and the evidence of others in the ground around them. It is an awfully bleak and lonely place to be buried. At least at Grytviken the cemetery is looked after and visited, but here, no one comes and only the seals guard the dead.

Desolate Graveyard

Further along from the cemetery is the ‘Bayard’, a three masted steel bark which was used apparently as a coal hulk for the station. She is now worn so thin you can see through her hull at the water line, there is tussac grass growing on her and a colony of Shags is thriving on board. 

The Bayard

From there we walked further along the shore to the point. There we climbed a small, tussac covered hill to look along the coast. It was quite a surprise to find Furries up that hill in the tussac. Not only does one ask oneself: “How did they get up here?” but also: “Why would they want to?”. From the point we could see the ocean. It made me think that even though we live 9m from the sea we never actually see the ocean unless very briefly from a hill or as we cross the mouth of the bay to get into West Cumberland Bay. It was quite nice to see the ocean proper and some surf and to know that the next land from our shore was Tristan da Cunha.

We wandered back to the building and had lunch surrounded by Furries. They are not bothered by you at all if you are sitting or lying down, it is only when you are standing up that they have issues with you. I fell asleep in the sun after lunch and woke up to the sound of a Furry mum purring as her pup suckled. I also awoke to a ‘Geep’ (a Giant Petrel, the scavengers of the shores) at my feet looking at me and wondering if I was dead enough to eat yet. I informed him that I most definitely was not and suggested that he bugger off. I did think how odd it would seem to people who hadn’t get used to seals to see me lie down and happily fall asleep in the middle of a colony. I would not have done so if there had been big males around but I was completely happy to do so there and in fact felt quite welcomed by them when I realised they were relaxed enough, with me only a couple of feet away, to purr. 

Hide and Seek with a Furry

We left Ocean Harbour in the afternoon, once Kelvin had finished his spraying, and walked slowly back up the hill. At the pass we decided to go and visit a lake on the map so we went there and came slowly back to the hut along a ridge. We had to stop every so often because, as Kelvin said: “The view got in the way”. From the top of the ridge we could see further into the island’s interior than I had ever done before. There were far more mountains than I am used to and each of them was sunkissed and dusted slightly with snow. It really was the most wonderful sight.

The view got in the way

To top it all off when we got back to the hut we discovered that we had been living under a Sooty Albatross nest without knowing it. We only discovered it when the adult returned and started calling. The chick was silent.

Sooty Albatross and chick

Adder's Tongue Fern

Penguin footsteps in the sand

 We passed another comfortable night and returned to base the next morning when we were picked up by our boats. We discovered that it had been such a glorious day for all on Tuesday that most of the base had taken the afternoon off and gone penguin watching or fishing or anything else. Joe caught a fish surprisingly and we all teased him that now he would have to pay the £100,000 or so that it cost for a licence. 

On Friday I had a really lovely afternoon. I had discovered a couple of months ago that the parents of one of my best friends (who was my American roommate in college) were coming down to South Georgia on the National Geographic Explorer. I then discovered as an even greater coincidence that a great friend of one of my American cousins was also aboard. I organised with them and the Expedition Leader that I could give them a base tour. I caught up with them at Grytviken and brought them round to KEP. I gave them a tour and a cup of tea. It must have tasted rather odd to them since we make it with Nido (powdered milk). I had forgotten that Nido doesn’t taste quite right, I am so used to it now. I hope they didn’t mind it too much. I was then very kindly invited aboard for supper. It was someone’s birthday and as they were friends and invited to his birthday dinner he very kindly invited me also. I had spinach soup, duck breast on a lentil and chorizo base and then a cheese board made up of cheese that had not been frozen, as all ours is. There were also fresh vegetables which I happily availed myself of. I was in 7^th heaven. Ellen and Ron had very kindly (at their daughter’s suggestion) brought down about 4lbs of Goldfish crackers from the US (my favourite) and chocolate. I will now have to ration it all very carefully or perhaps decide to eat them all in one blaze of glory. Unfortunately I had to leave fairly abruptly. Pat, Sarah, Andy Black and Jen who also were on board and I had to leave fast because the wind had picked up to 40 knots and if we didn’t leave quickly we would be staying on board and going back to Stanley with them. The captain brought the ship into the cove to give us some shelter and in the end it was a very dry trip back. It was a lovely evening and such a surprise. It is odd how these coincidences happen. 

Now it is back to the normal routine. Sue is in the Kitchen making the Saturday night meal as I write. The most exciting thing is that we have somehow got our hands on a copy of the new Les Miserables film and some of us have been allowed into Shack Villa (while Keiron is in Stanley having dental problems fixed) and we will be watching it for a Sunday afternoon film on sofas. I am not sure whether I am more excited about the film (which I have wanted to see for about 6 months) or sofas which we don’t have in our buildings on base. It should be a lovely day.