Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Fitzroy



























So, one day shopping, one day working and frying my brain with spreadsheets and lists of stock and stamps, and one day walking and that was Ushuaia. We took the first half of our flight to Buenos Aires, and arranged to get off in El Calafate, before getting the bus to El Chalten. It´s a long way to anywhere here, takes a while to get your mind around how big this country is. a two hour flight and 5 hour bus journey and we have hardly moved on the map.
This is the jumping off point for some of the most spectacular Andean mountain scenery, Mount Fitzroy and Cerro Torre. We´ve been incredibly lucky with the weather, two days hiking, one in glorious sunshine with fantastic views of the peaks. Although the practice day walking in Tierro del Fuego must have have done some good, I feel totally exhausted on our first day here. We walk for 6 hours up a good trail through forest to the Torre glacier, and I can´t talk, can only put one foot in front of the other with a huge effort. I think I hadn´t truly realised how tired I am, and I really need a rest, a day off from doing anything.
But another good steak and a night´s rest and we go off to see Fitzroy the next day. One of the most stunning days walking you could ever have. The trees are just beginning to turn, and the sun and blue sky remind me of a great day in the mountains in Japan when I visited James and Jules.
An evening in the microbrewery with some home-made muscle relaxant (aka beer) and tomorrow we must make plans for the next few days.

Empanadas


¡Hola amigos! Three days in Ushuaia, bought some jeans (too tight, but I must be going to lose weight now of course), and some Merrell´s for hiking, and headed off to the Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego to learn how to walk again. Ten miles up and down hill, and along the coast of the Beagle Channel, and I´ve never had such sore quads! my goodness, I knew I must have got unfit living on a small rock for 4 months, but still... It´s a bit worrying. Not as shell shocked as I thought I would be, but perhaps it just hasn´t hit yet. The first sight of greenery was quite wonderful but I seem to have got used to it again pretty quickly. Beautiful beech forest, notofagus, huge variation in leaf size depending on quite how tough the particular location is. And new birds! great grebes, ibis, a different sort of caracara, a huge bird of prey that we didn´t know at all. But I still miss the baby penguins.
Oh, and the food! cafe con leche and empanadas on our first morning. King crab and calamare, home made ice creams, huge steaks, oh dear, what was that about losing some of the antarctic flab?

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Drake Lake or Drake Shake?




























Wonderful sights on the way home on Explorer II.
Basking leopard seals, and endless ice







Yes, it really was it! Not without a few extra hurdles to overcome through. At the last minute the ship decided not to land passengers at 7am but to pick us up quickly at 6.30 and head on north to make a landing at Cuverville Island instead. There really wouldn't have been time to do both. So we put all the shop away, carried on counting left-over stock, in bed at 10 ish, up at 4.30am! Pitch dark of course, it was like your worst nightmare of getting up in the winter dark to catch a train, and still having pack up the last bits of waste to take with us, pour out all liquids that might freeze, disconnect the batteries etc etc. Thank goodness Rick had rigged up an electric light in the bunkroom this season so we didn't have to do it all by torchlight. Explorer II had arrived the evening before and it was comforting to see her lights circling in the bay all night, and know that we really did have a lift home.
And here we are then - a luxurious cabin each, as many hot showers as we can bear, fabulous food pressed on us several times a day, along with cocktails, wine, Irish coffees, hot chocolate laced with rum - you name it, you can have it. I was apprehensive to say the least about crossing the Drake, and dosed myself with pills yesterday. It's a very flat drake apparently, which means swell of only 4 to 5 metres. Rick and I even managed an interesting game of ping pong in the gym yesterday afternoon! Hard to keep your eye on the ball when sometimes it appears to stop in midair and even go backwards. We are anticipating arrival in Ushuaia late tonight/early tomorrow morning. So need to make the most of our last day here. We held a small post office on board yesterday morning, and I still have to do the final accounts, and stamp counting. It's great that this ship is going on to Stanley so we can just leave the mail with them for delivery. Well, I think it is elevenses time now, hmm what little treat shall I have next? yet to try out the sauna.
Rachal and I did the landing on Cuverville on Sunday, while Rick succumbed to the lure of a warm bed with clean sheets (after five months in a sleeping bag!). We were allowed to climb part way up the steep rocky little island. What a pleasure it was! just to be able to walk somewhere in a straight line for half an hour! and uphill too! Was quite pleased to manage it at all. And once back in the zodiacs we were met by another boat laden with glasses and champagne! A celebratory drink to say good bye to Antarctica, in the brilliant sunshine surrounded by gleaming icebergs and porpoising penguins. What a way to finish our time here! I can't think of anything better.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Is that it then?






Final farewell to the Bremen
after another spectacular meal









My bunk during the packing process!














Can't believe we are packing up. Counting all the clothes, patches, bookmarks in the shop, putting away the artifacts in the museum, scrubbing the floors. Also can't believe it is so long since I have put a message here!
We had a hectic last two weeks of Feb, two ships a day, but now we just have one more and they are landing 200 passengers tomorrow morning, starting at 7am (6am our time, ouch!). Then we'll have a whirl of activity, shut the stamp suitcases and get on board, hopefully by 10 am - that's the plan anyway. And then I think the three of us will be tempted by a long hot shower and a comfy bed in a warm cabin! Just been out for a final lunch on Bark Europa, the beautiful Dutch sailing ship, the sun came out and we stood on deck taking photographs for the last time of our little island with the mountains behind. There are still plenty of little penguins around on Goudier, they are splishing about at the water's edge learning how to swim. I wish we had had more time and decent weather to be able to sit and watch them play. The leopard seal has been around alot too, easy food. It's an gruesome sight to see them thrashing the penguins around in the air, letting them go and catching the
m again, until they are a skinned bloody mess.
Right then, better go - this time tomorrow I'll either be in the bar or the sauna!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

A winter wonderland again

Coming home in the snow from dinner last night, still light enough, just, for photography at 10pm. By the way, bottom left foreground - if you look closely - a baby penguin asleep on the boot scraper. Cute!

Ice on the beach

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

cold toeses and noses













Lying in bed, 8 o'clock this morning, feeling vaguely guilty, and wondering when the cruise ship would arrive, then Rick remembers that they have changed their schedule and are not coming at all! So we relax, another cuppa and breakfast in bed. Even put the heater on as it is below 5 degrees - the benchmark for requiring heat! It's a blizzard outside. I go down to the landing site without getting properly dressed - I need to check if the package of 200 postcards and stamps is still there or whether the cruise ship that requested them had picked them up during the night. They are gone, and I hope they did not just blow away. Come back up, dripping into the bunk room, long johns soaked through and shivering, much to the amusement of the other two. Back into bed to warm up and dry off. It feels like we have come full circle here, there is a lot of snow lying outside, wonder just how much more wintry it will get before we go.

We had our visit from the Saga Ruby, they kindly delivered about 30 boxes of supplies, then we went on board briefly for a hasty dinner and Rick to give a slideshow. Met a friend of my mother's, who hadn't seen me since I was 4! he had some photos of me with him - I've grown a bit but don't look much different! Sadly we didn't have much time to chat - I had to go and do finances with the purser, as they had an on board shop for us on the way here. Rick's talk went down well, in fact he got more laughs by all accounts than the stand-up comedian who followed him. We set off home near to midnight, and while we'd been on board the bay had filled with ice! It was truly spectacular, but made progress slow, and we were even wondering if (hoping!) we might have to go back and spend a night in a warm cabin ..... but no, Neil the driver got us through, with a colleague at the front with a torch shining the way. It's getting really dark at night these days, the days are shortening quic
kly, and we are glad that Rick has fixed us up with an electric light in the bunk room. Though I miss the hiss of the Tilley lamp. The next night we had three cruise ships moored nearby overnight (oh, and another superb meal with fine wines...) and it was strange to see the artificial lighting around us making the ice cliffs glow at night.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

I've got mail

A wee flurry of postcards the other day! mostly showing pictures of clean beaches in Arnside! How nice. Thank you! But perhaps I didn't distribute my address well enough before I left - the addresses used were varied and imaginative. One just arrived, 'Port Lockroy, West Antarctica'! and another 'Historic Site 61' - well done, Steve and Paula, you did your homework! And Hoorah for the British postal system.

We are a bit hectic here, three ships today, we are about to go out for lunch, and going out also to give a presentation and have dinner later on a large ship from the UK, Saga Ruby, which doesn't actually land passengers here because there are too many of them. They have some supplies from the UK to deliver, and have also very kindly agreed to take some personal stuff home for us. So packing up already, in any spare minute, it feels strange when we still have three weeks here. We have managed to fill three boxes and a couple of holdalls between us, hope we don't get invited out to any smart yachts, all my good clothes have gone in. Thank goodness for that! Because I will be taking a detour on the way home - been tempted by the thought of a couple of weeks in Argentina and will be flying home on the 26th March now. Not sure where to go, but as long as it is far enough north to relax in the sun I'll be happy. One of the ships is bringing down a Lonely Planet Argentina guide f
rom Ushuaia, so if I can squeeze in the time to read some of it that will help the planning.

However with 21 ships before the end of Feb there won't be a lot of free time. And with so many early starts and late nights - first ship in at 7am this morning, out til midnight the night before - we're all beginning to feel a bit frazzled! It'll be a lot of fun though I think, of course we will have to celebrate the end of the season with each ship visit.

The babies are growing fast now, they are all a pretty large uniform size and this seems to be causing the skuas to go hungry as there are no smaller weaker ones to pick off. We are seeing the skuas looking quite desperate pacing round the flocks of chicks, and just jumping on top of any they can reach. However they seem to be very afraid of getting injured themselves, and won't risk a peck from a protective adult. We did see one baby get 'got' the other day, just in front of the boat shed, and the poor little thing was eaten alive, still feebly flapping for a long long time while the skuas had their grisly lunch. Heart-breaking to watch. However we do have to keep reminding ourselves that there really isn't much room for any more penguins on this little island! Rick's favourite joke in his introductory talk, once he has everyone hating evil skuas, is that the world would be overrun by gentoos if something wasn't eating them!

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

cuddly gentoos

We have been overrun with thousands more gentoos! but they are quite manageable and are resting in boxes at the moment. They are soft and furry and about 6 inches high with Port Lockroy written on their tummies. We had a visit at long last from HMS Endurance, who had left the UK in November with more supplies for us on board, more leaflets, more shopping bags, more propane cylinders (hooray, we'd been eking out the one we had, trying not to put the fire on too often). And they brought us the cuddly gentoos that had missed the boat and were not ready to come down with us in October. We have spread them around the shop, in every nook and cranny, as advised by last year's postmistressing staff. They look lovely! and at least they'll be here for next season - I doubt we'll sell them all in the last few weeks.
Yes, and we really are on the home straight now, less than 5 weeks to go, only a month - and I can't imagine how we will get everything done that needs doing before we go. The last mail will go to Stanley on the 26th of this month, along with all the gear we picked up on the way down - oh but if we send the cancels back then how do we frank the mail for the last two weeks? hmm, and I ordered more stamps under the assumption that we will need them for the last few weeks of mail, but if we can't frank them then we don't need the stamps - this all needs a bit more thinking about! Not that straightforward being a postmistress you know! let alone dealing with the customers who want to know why on earth we have run out of one colour of t shirt, and why couldn't we have brought more stuff with us ... More stuff! really not possible. If only they'd been there at midnight on the day we arrived, when we finished unloading the first 500 boxes.
To more cheery subjects! - the baby pengys really are running around now, they have dried off, cleaned up and are very fluffy themselves, to rival the toy ones in fact, but even cuter of course. We are still in a social whirl and wondering how we will eat all the food parcels that are being pressed on us, when in fact we are out for dinner every night. Just returned from a barbecue (indoors thank goodness) tonight actually, our hosts were on the other time zone, so we were home, fed and showered, by 6pm! nice to have the whole night left without any washing up to do even. I've even turned down a few invitations recently due to a flu bug which has now got my throat rather badly - saw a nice doctor on a cruise ship who gave me some penicillin - hope that will clear it up soon. It's not good being under the weather here, there's not much chance to take a break without leaving your colleagues over-worked. February is looking pretty busy, but manageable, with the odd free spell h

ere and there. I do hope we get some more sun though - it's still pretty thin on the ground, was snowing hard again this morning - when will I get all the painting done?!

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Piped aboard on the 25th

As everyone knows, 25th January is when all Scots celebrate their only famous poet. It was looking unlikely that we would get a Burn's night invitation, and I had been hiding the fact that I had found some frozen tins of haggis (best before: Long Expired!)in the boat shed. It was yet another wet and windy day, we've had tremendous rain, some penguin chicks are dead in their nests and the rest are shivering sadly. After the last ship visit on the day in question Rick and I took the opportunity to nip aboard for a shower, intending to come straight back, but of course ended up in the bar, sharing champagne with a honeymoon couple and chatting to the staff. After dinner we had a lift back to base, where Rachel was just about to go out to a French yacht for a late continental dinner, so off we went again. There were 7 yachts moored behind the island, an extraordinary sight, all come in for a bit of shelter. A strange squealing sound was heard just as we were getting to the fruit
and cheese - which alarmed the yacht owners somewhat ... someone glanced out of a window. A piper on deck! The British Army aboard yacht Discoverer have been on expedition down here for a couple of months, they have paid us many visits, and helped to dig a drainage ditch around the back of the hut to aid penguin poop clearance. Two of the party are Scots and had brought not only a set of pipes, but also kilts. The piper then climbed into a zodiac and was driven on a circuit of the bay, piping as he went, kilt flying in the breeze! A wonderful moment. An invitation was issued to all yachts to come aboard, so off we went. Wondering how many people the yacht could hold! we all crowded on deck and sampled many varieties of whisky. Oh dear. We had another early start the next morning and a 350 passenger ship in at 7am .... the less said about my less-than sparkling form the better. Still it was another night to remember - we seem to be having a few of these.
The schedule is hectic for the next couple of weeks, two or three ships most days. I seem to think I might have said that before sometime! This has been our busiest month without doubt, February looks a little quieter. But we really need some good weather, as well as free time, if we are going to make any progress with the painting - my favourite job! Fingers crossed for some sun.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Chilli chocolate, jumbo oats

The postman came yesterday! Two more bags of mail from Stanley, and it was like Christmas all over again. We had an afternoon off, a wild and windy day, cosied ourselves up in the bunk room and lit the fire. I had two little packages, chocolate! extra-special chilli chocolate from Rachel (even more special because my roomies don't like chilli so I get to eat it all myself!). And a big heavy squashy parcel from Phil containing ..... jumbo oats!. Ever practical. I had been bemoaning the fact that we had very few here - they do make the best home-made muesli - and he took it upon himself to do something about it. Fantastic, down to the last packet but this should see me through. Only 6 weeks and 5 days to go til we leave, not that we are counting but Rachel and I did work it out the other day .... just curious you understand ..
The days continue much the same, with the odd spectacular highlight here and there. We had an emperor penguin visit, over on Jougla Point across the water. Of course we can't get there being boatless, but the ship that was visiting at the time gave us a zodiac trip over to view it. Beautiful big bird, amazingly huge, made the gentoos all look like babies. And even better, there were a few spare kayaks that evening, and Rachel and I borrowed a double and went out for a circuit of Goudier Is. What a treat, I had been so jealous of kayakers we had seen in the area. It was magic seeing the ice cliffs and bergs from sea level, and having penguins popping up next to us to take a look.
And having said the days are much the same, that's not quite true - they are different also! It seems that almost every day one of us has a connection to a passenger, or a visitor has some link to the early inhabitants of the base. A couple of days ago Rachel sold a stamp to a friendly couple, and they put it on a card with an Ayr address - when I had a look I was sure the address rang a bell - White Gables? It dawned on me that Judith, one of my best friends at school had lived there! They were astonished when I told them I had been in their house! admittedly not for near on thirty years - they said it had changed a bit. And took a photo of me to show Judith who they still knew. How funny, they went around the museum telling everybody of this odd coincidence.
Well, it's a wild and windy day today, the baby penguins are in a right bedraggled state and I'll be surprised if we don't have casualties poor things. But from what I have heard the weather has been grim back home, and I imagine we are still in a better position to have long sunny days than the UK. No more painting for a while, but we haven't really got time now anyway, big ships in everyday for the next week or so.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Another sunny day

Not up on the roof this time, but out painting window frames. Just thought I'd try experimenting with sending a very small image, wonder if it will work.
First ship in at 6.30 am this morning. We have been forced into changing our time zone in our habits but not our watches, and so went to bed at 9.30 pm. Argentina has for some bizarre reason gone forward an hour right in the middle of summer. We are staying on GMT -3 and so are some of the ships, but not all. Sadly it seems that the early morning visits are all from the ships that have gone to GMT -2. Still it was interesting getting through our first hundred passengers before breakfast time. And then still having 250 to go! it was a big ship - out biggest landing yet.
Absolutely gorgeous day though, not a cloud in the sky, hence the window painting this afternoon. Now we are waiting for our evening visit, due to arrive at 6 pm. They have just radioed to ask if we want the sauna turning on! some of the staff on board the ships are becoming really good friends and look after us so well. We are also invited for dinner and then the passengers will land afterwards. It's going to be a(nother) long day.
The baby penguins are growing so fast! the 'feed-me' squeaks are becoming squawks, and our first hatched are beginning to step out of the nests and experiment with pottering. They are so comically wobbly - huge bellies and ungainly flat feet. The skuas are around more and more, and occasionally we see the Lockroy flying penguins, as a poor little chick is whisked away into the air. There are even some eggs not hatched yet - we think they must be duds.
Time for tea on the verandah, and then better pack my clean clothes for socialising!

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Up on the roof

Seems a bit late to be saying 'Happy New Year'! But there it is anyway. We had a really good Hogmanay, invited over to a yacht, Xplore, for a wonderful dinner, fresh avocados, roast beef, sponge with custard (more than made up for the cheese sandwich on Christmas Day!) and then they came back with us at midnight for the bells and following party in our wee hut. A great evening, dancing til dawn - well, it's hard to tell when dawn is even though the nights are drawing in now. I seem to recall being surprised when I went into our bunkroom in the early hours and found my room-mates asleep already.
Needless to say, we were all a bit delicate the next day - I have to admit to being the most delicate though! and struggled with conversation during the ship visits on the 1st. Took all my concentration to add up. Was pleased to see that our party-sharing yacht didn't move at all during the day either.
And so followed a busy busy week to begin the year. Three ships a day for a few consecutive, plus a number of yachts nipping in between big visits, the weather still continuing wild and wet. And yesterday we had a maintenance day, no ships! and the sun came out. Was a wonderful morning, I was up on the roof with a tin of bitumen paint and a sheathbill shit-scraper, and finished off the last sections over the old generator shed. Sloping and corrugated - not good for the knees. Had a break at noon for an outing of the Lockroy Harriers - I had noticed from my vantage point that the tide was good and low, lots of dry rock exposed, a chance for some exercise. Am concerned by the state I will be in when I get home - so unfit - it will take some time to regain any leg strength and lung capacity. Anyway off we went for a couple of laps - I returned for some stretching and when I next looked over there were Rick and Rachel with towels going in for a dip. I was too far away to see the
ir expressions - later found out that Rick asked Rachel to record the fact that he swam for several strokes while smiling. Followed this with lunch on the verandah, during which the wind really picked up and we all got very chilly and retired indoors. I had to go back up to finish the roof, and managed to get more trails of bitumen on me than anywhere else. Followed this with an hour trying to find grey caps in the boat shed - Rick helped move boxes, but it was still a struggle and we had to open many! I had then to scrub my arms and face with paraffin to become respectable enough to go out for dinner on Discoverer, a British Army yacht which has been with us for a couple of days while the lads scaled peaks nearby. A very pleasant evening. We have done extremely well for meals recently - in fact a late long four course lunch on one luxurious ship a couple of days ago was followed three hours later by an invitation to dinner! No wonder I need to worry about getting unhealthy.
I didn't believe Tessa when she said she put on weight in Antarctica, however we have been so overwhelmed by generosity from the ships that we have begun to give away food parcels to yachties more needy than ourselves.
Time for coffee and cake - oh dear more stodge - and then siesta til the next ship.