The Terrible Twins' Last Hurrah

This was Hazel’s last full week on base. I am not sure who is more distressed by this, me or her. I do not like the fact that it means that I only have 17 or 18 days left on base myself. What am I going to do when I can’t look out of my window at this view? Anyway, enough of that.

Most of this week has been taken up by preparing for handover. Tidying things away, cleaning the boatshed etc. Yesterday (Saturday) Hazel and I had the joy of preparing the main freezer for the arrival of a year’s worth of frozen food. We moved a lot of boxes and made a fair amount of mess before we were done but now we have room, which will be very necessary. Hazel also has been packing and moving into my room to make room for the new guys. It is an odd feeling to be sharing again but it won’t be long. Once Hazel leaves Julie (the new doc) will take her place in my room but soon she’ll have the pit room all to herself when I leave. 

An important event this week was a visit, on a cruise ship, by Hazel’s parents. She was very pleased to be able to show them the base and the island and I was privileged to meet them. They are now on their way down to the Antarctic Peninsula and having a grand time by all accounts.

Hazel with her new coat (she's very proud of it)

 On Wednesday we decided that we needed to make sure that we had one last night off base. After work we (Hazel, Micky and I) collected our tents, stove, sleeping bags and food and headed round to Penguin River. We had planned our excursion to include bright evening sun and a calm evening but the weather, as usual, had other ideas. No rain luckily but wind and clouds which meant that we spent most of the time in the tent. We all had boil in the bag dinners, a change for Hazel and me since most of our ‘rat packs’ are dried. We had a truly lovely evening sitting in the tent chatting, drinking a bottle of wine, eating some of Hugh’s (the post master) excellent brownies and generally enjoying ourselves.

The next morning we were woken at about 0400 by the sun rising and the world rising with it. We lay in our sleeping bags just listening. We could hear the chattering of the King penguins as they stood on the spit in the middle of the river in different stages of moulting. In the distance we could hear the roaring of a bull Elephant Seal who had found a favourite echo on the cliffs and was using it to great advantage to send his challenge ringing round the bay. We could also hear the weaners (young seals) playing in the water. They are the most endearing things. Two males will come together and play, practicing fighting each other, rearing their fat bodies up and slapping each other with their necks. Sometimes however one gets distracted by the clouds and stays with his head up looking at them. His playmate is usually annoyed by this and will slap him gently with his flip until he returns his gaze to earth. I passed one a little later in the morning who was all alone in a pool just blowing bubbles. 

In various stages of moult    Photo: H. Woodland

Lurking in the ice

                 Displeased with our presence           Photo: H. Woodland

Keeping his flips warm

At about 0530 Hazel stuck her head out of our tent to check whether it was a nice day or not and said, jokingly, “I think we have the attention of a male.” She then lay back down in the tent. About five minutes later we heard a thwumping noise. Luckily Hazel looked out again and like a scalded rabbit shot out of her sleeping bag and the tent. The male that she had said had noticed us had indeed got his eye on us, not only that, he was advancing fast (the thwumping noise) to put his amorous advances into action. Hazel had to dissuade him by hitting the ground in front of his nose with a stick but he looked pretty determined. He stayed there eyeing the tent up while we had our tea but luckily Hazel had persuaded him that we were not a good bet. When we struck camp he took massive fright when we took the outer sheet off the tent and hared off. That would have been one very ‘interesting’ way to wake up.

              The terrible twins' morning tea (with smoke)        Photo: M. Sutcliffe

  

Morning tea with our admirer

Dissuading him from his amorous advances

We had a cup of tea and then had to strike camp and return to base fairly quickly. We all had to be back to work, Micky was late since he starts at 0700, and Hazel had to go onto the Fram (a cruise ship) to help with the post office. Unfortunately she was a little late, we only arrived back at base at 0800, but it was fine.

On Sunday we decided that we had to have a last weekend walk. We had heard from Kris and Josie (two of the Museumees), who had stayed at Harpon on Friday night, that there was a huge ice tunnel close to the hut so we decided to go and investigate. We had to be back on base by 1600; Hazel because she was cooking for the builders (in return for the amount of times they have cooked us two Sunday roast) and I  because I had to check the boats ready to pick up pick up the new winterers off the JCR (one of the BAS ships). It normally takes about 3 hours to get to Harpon so we left base at 0800. Hazel and Micky went into another gear and with some huffing and puffing I managed to keep up and we got to Harpon in under two hours. We found the ice tunnel and had a good investigation of it. The ice over there is covered in moraine so there was very little light that got through the ice. This made it look as if it was made of obsidian. Then as you looked into the walls you could see that there were rocks caught in the ice. It was as if you were looking at a meteor shower in space. I found it incredible to think that they were hanging there, not only in space but in time as well. Once we came out of the tunnel we made our way to the beach and had a look at the seals there. The weather then clagged in so we went to the hut and had a couple of cups of tea and bacon sandwiches kindly made and brought by Micky. 

Entrance

The ice tunnel

Suspended in time

Once we left the hut the wind, which was gale force, literally blew us up and over Echo Pass and we got home in an hour and a half. This is a record and is impressive considering that Hugh, who is a fast runner, can get to the hut in an hour and ten minutes and we were walking with packs. It was a lovely and fitting last walk and I really enjoyed it.

Once I have written this I will go down to the jetty and prepare to either go out by boat and collect the new guys arriving or wait to take the JCR’s lines as she drops items off. Once she has dropped these guys off she will turn tail and head back up the island overnight to reach Bird Island in the morning. There she will do relief and then return to us to do our relief. This is my last blog as the sole boaty on base and (probably) my penultimate one from KEP. A sobering thought but it does mean that I am closer to seeing my family and friends... and trees. I do miss trees.

On that note.

Have a good week.