teeks

As the Sun shines above our snowy home, it warms my heart to know that the Summer season is upon us, providing unfamiliar warmth on our backs, and a burning sensation ON MY STUPID FACE. I spent 5 hours outside with factor 30 sunblock, and yet at the end of the day my face was red as a very red thing painted red. Apart that is, from the area around my eyes which were shielded by my sun glasses, leaving me with a ridiculous look which spurned giggles at the site of me. You could say I was a sight with sore eyes.

I was outside with the dome move, and to those eager fans that have read my blog with gusto since last year (hello Mum) will know, the dome move is a nightmare scenario involving ninjas, trampolines, ninjas on trampolines and a dozer filled with ninjas. OK, there’s no trampoline, but the move can be very difficult… Not this time though!

Apart from getting a face full of UV radiation, the dome move was finished with no problems at all, and was reconnected fully within 3 hours of disconnection – a record for a Welsh comms manager whose name is Dean and has a red face.

Ohh, base population is up to 33, and it’s bonkers. I had to queue up for the toilets the other night, imagine what it’s going to be like with 120… urgh

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It’s been 18 of us for the longest time ever. Knowing each other like brothers and sisters, no surprises and nothing unknown. That all changed a few Fridays ago when a DC-3 landed with 7 new people, all eager to set the Halley 6 project rolling. I have to admit that having relative strangers on the base felt erm, strange at first … What do you mean I wont know how they drink their tea or how they like to arrange their forks before dinner?!!? That doesn’t make any sense at all, I know everything about everyone on base!

The newcomers soon settled in and it feels like they’ve been here for … weeks already. Their arrival launched an increased workload for most on base, with the science teams packing away their instruments for the science-shutdown and the tech services guys getting the summer accommodations up and running (me included). I’ve also been busy flight following at ungodly hours, but it’s about time I pulled my weight a bit.

These lovely people brought a small variety of fresh fruit and vegetables, and we all stood amazed at the sight of such wonderfully precious exotic foods. I cooked on the following Monday, and I dropped an apple and I nearly broke down and cried … such is the value of fresh fruit at the moment (I was unfortunately forced to eat it … cant serve damaged goods, no siree).

We’ll be getting 3 more flights soon, starting on Fri/Sat, introducing over the next week another 30ish Antarctic heroes to the base’s already swollen compliment The ship’s also due to arrive around the 10th of December, brining much needed fresh fruit, salads and camera lenses…

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Woohoo, an update! Don’t panic, I’m not dead.

Sorry for being slack, but been muchos busy. Since my last update, I’ve visited the penguins at Windy, had 2 fancy dress parties (Toga + London Tube stations), went on my winter trip and visited the most excellent penguins (again), a plane arrived with 7 fresh food and faces (not food with faces), reccied the N9 route with Sune, the band played for the new arrivals and everyone on base has been mega-busy. Ohh, there was another penguin trip in the middle somewhere … for a fifth time. So, in summary, I’ve busy looking at penguins.

I’ve uploaded the first penguin trip to my gallery (link on the left) so no need to write about that, and I wont bother posting about the fancy dress parties (that’s all this blog seems to do). I will however talk about my winter trip.

The second winter trip is slightly longer than the first (end of Feb for us, Sledge Awesome), with a 9 day incursion to the Rumples – an area of crevasses, cracks, cliffs etc and a brief stay at Windy Caboose – a small hut 18 km from base on the coast, right next to a big Emperor penguin colony. Unfortunately for us, our Field GA Sune, had a touch of frostbite on his nose so he was unable to take us. Pete however was frostbite free, and was more than happy to take us to Windy – so off we went, 4 skidoos, 3 sledges of food, fuel and tents, about to partake in an exciting adventure.

We arrived at Windy on a Saturday, and soon settled in with our bags unpacked and beds made. We walked down the flag line which lined a safe route to the sea cliffs and the penguin colony. We made tea and ate manfood (dried insta-food … think Pot Noodle and you have roughly the right idea) and jumped into our warm sleeping bags, eagerly looking forward to the next day’s travels. But as usual, Mr Weather had other ideas.

I’m not sure if you read my blog entry on my first winter trip , but the weather was absolutely rubbish, and we were forced to stay tent-bound for 7 days … well this time we were forced to stay caboose-bound for 7 days! We were lucky enough to get out and explore for 2 days though, and we popped down the sea cliffs for some climbing and to chinwag with the locals – The Emperor Penguins – I’d post some images here but I’m too lazy. Despite the weather we had a great time. There’s a lot to be said about spending a week with silly people (namely Tamsin and Jim) they certainly made living inside a small hut a lot more enjoyable.

Filed by admin at 12:59 pm under antarctica
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