Peripatetic Postmistress

Nervous anticipation!

2009-04-19T16:39:00.005-03:00

Have been invited ski touring tomorrow, ridiculously high up on a glacier, somewhere in Switzerland. Bit scared! but very excited too. Have been told that it is flat (?!) and not scary at all. Need to go to sleep soon, am on the 7am bread run again after a few days off - shall go to bed, go directly to bed without passing Go or collecting £200. Chalet bosses arrived safely in time for lunch, sans guests, so just the three of us here tonight. They are both recovering from operations and want a really easy day out, they think it will be easy enough for me to come too! Will be mortified if I am still left behind. Leaving here at 8am with a picnic, will report back later. First experience of 'skinning' coming up.

Oh, just looked at what Wiki says about ski touring - it 'requires cardiovascular fitness, mental toughness, and a firm understanding of mountain craft' . Oh (again).

Second egg

2009-04-19T09:57:00.004-03:00

for the happy couple at Loch Garten! it's very sweet to watch them, they seem a bit dim but I suppose they only have small brains despite being big birds. I logged on just after the first egg was laid and saw Odin (dad) come in to land. Mum EJ stood up to let Odin peer underneath her. He straightened up quickly with a puzzled expression, then bent down again for another good look to check that he really had seen what he thought he saw. Perhaps he's never had one before and isn't quite sure what is going on. He keeps trying to be helpful with the housework, bless him, shifting bits of moss back and forth in a clueless manner. Brought in a huge branch which he dumped on top of his missus and wondered why she was a bit narked. But he does seem to be pretty good at getting dinner ont table, which is what really matters after all.

And I have just seen a crested tit on the seed feeder while clearing away lunch! First time. Is that what is known as a lifer? And after all those Rothiemurchus walks with a cricked neck scanning the lofty pines for the pretty little things.

Now I just need to see a crossbill.

Oh dear, not much mention of skiing .... haven't been out for a few days. Been getting the chalet in tip top condition (I hope!) for the return of the owners for the last week of the season. There is really a lot, and I mean a lot of stuff to dust. And what with the advent of spring and insects I am finding that every time I look up there are new festoons of cobwebs, as if there wasn't enough else to do ....

Glorious sunny day ....

2009-04-14T09:39:00.008-03:00

.... in Aviemore! I got distracted the other day by a text from Alan and Tess who were cycling to Boat of Garten on their Easter hols - and it reminded me of the Loch Garten ospreys and the visit we made a couple of years ago. Pleased to say that there is a pair in residence, same female (EJ) with a different male of unknown origin. Every time I have had a look at the video cam it has been sunny which is pretty remarkable and it's been nice to see the Scots pines of that wonderful piece of old Caledonian forest too.

Since I'm on a wildlife theme - I opened my curtains the other morning to find a red squirrel in the tree outside. One of the bigger, dark chocolate-brown variants that you get on the continent, with enormous ear tufts. The linked piccy is from a Czech website and gives you the idea! Oh and then, on my way back from a lovely ski today, as I was struggling back up the steps from town, in my boots - ow ow! - carrying my skis - oof! there was an unknown (to me) butterfly sunning itself. And it was one of these - a Camberwell Beauty. Well, presumably they are called something French here, but don't ask me what. Gorgeous rich purplish-reddish velvet wings.

It's getting so warm now I am still hopeful of seeing/hearing a marmot before I leave! Saw three swallows today as well, so summer must really be here in the Alps.

Happy Eeeeeeaster!

2009-04-12T10:19:00.014-03:00

Seems I only post when the weather is bad! perhaps that is because when it is good I am out. It has been hot hot hot! for weeks and weeks. Ever since Bill left. I am hiding my sunburnt arms today by staying in having a pottering kind of afternoon. Still lots of skiing here, though some of the lower runs getting very slushy even by mid-morning and of course I don't normally get out till midday when I have finished scrubbing. Slushy is quite fun though, the pistes get really bumpy and you can almost pretend it's powdery bumps. It must be good for my skiing too coz it is much more difficult - good for the leg muscles as well. Am planning to return home with thighs of steel ready for immediate transfer to bicycle!

So here are some sunny, snowy photos to prove it!

Coffee and cake time, got to feed those growing muscles

Retract previous post ..

2009-03-26T13:14:00.006-03:00

Bill came to stay, with his shorts and his sunnies, and ... um ... the temperature took a bit of a nosedive. Winter is back! But on the plus side, half a metre more snow! hooray! It wasn't looking like some of the pistes would make it to April. I might have not been able to ski back to the chalet for much longer, imagine how awful! And I've only just learnt how to do it without falling over. So whew, heave a sigh of relief, sorry for the primroses, but, oh well. C'est la vie, as they say somewhere.

We had three days skiing and one day snow-shoeing, the last ski day, yesterday, was the worst weather I had been out in. But by god we were tough! A little bit worrying tho when you go up the only lift that is open due to the vent fort - and you are the only people going up there - to the highest piste in the region - hmmm. And then Bill gets vaguely claustrophobic because we can't see beyond arms length - to him it's the same feeling as being stuck in a lift or otherwise enclosed in a small space even though there is huge space all around in reality. Lots of fun! Reminded me of some good days out on the Cairngorm plateau.

Was slightly worried about getting frostbite on that exposed inch of flesh between hat and neck gaiter.

Spring is sprung!

2009-03-22T18:36:00.007-03:00

First flower of the year - a teeny primrose under the beech hedge spotted on my way to the boulangerie.
The birdlife is also perking up, becoming pretty lively and vocal. I was a bit disorientated the other morning - still not getting much better at these early starts! - and was pottering down the road enjoying listening to the kookaburras while I was still asleep enough not to really know which country I was in. It did eventually dawn on me that I was in France and that green woodpeckers laugh too.

100m or less in hill fog patches

2009-03-14T17:24:00.008-03:00

I was dreaming that I was having a lie in this morning, til my alarm went off at quarter to seven. Then I remembered that I haven't had a morning off for nearly 3 weeks! soon, soon ..... should get two days off this coming week to make up!

Grim weather at the beginning of last week, still decided to go on a little outing, and for some mad reason got on the chairlift that I have always avoided due to the off putting signage! 'Piste difficile' only for 'Bons Skieurs' - not me shurely. Wondered why there was no one else on it -then got off at a bleak spot on a ridge in a howling gale

Where is everyone else?

Oh, it was also snowing really hard, and visibility was poor to nonexistent. Would that be 100m or less then? (perhaps it is only me who remembers Met-Man Mooney). Pottered around for a while, looking at my map and trying to decide which way to go. It's such a crazy thing to be doing, I mean it was seriously cold up there, gale force winds, if you were on a mountain in Scotland you'd have spare clothes, food, survival bag etc etc and of course a trusty flask, Bill! but to be up there alone with no emergency supplies seems mad. You can tell I still haven't quite 'got' this skiing thing. And everyone else apart from me is wearing fashion clothing, where the fur trim and how good you look seem to be the most important factors (better go shopping methinks .... praps that's where I am going wrong).

This seemed like the best way down - I quite like it when you can't see how steep the slope is... it helps me over my little vertigo problem.

Ended up having quite an exhilarating time, found a whole new area, a lovely snowy bowl, with just no people at all, wonder why Chatel is not such a popular resort. Spose it just could have been the weather. It's pretty wintry still.

Looking back down to Chatel, on the last piste leading back down to the chalet. I have to drop off the edge of it at just the right place to traverse across back to the chalet, if I am not brave enough and go too low it is a real slog across the field. Too high and it is too steep and deep and I keep trying to turn and chickening out til I run out of slope altogether...

Snow like wet cement

2009-03-03T13:08:00.004-03:00

And the other thing about the first of March is that the avalanche warning siren will go off at midday, as does on the first of every month. I always forget and it always makes me jump. And then I always wonder what you are supposed to do when it goes off for real. Where would you run to and how would you know which direction it was coming from? I'm looking forward already to wondering that again on the first of April, unless I have been better informed about avalanche procedure in the meantime.

Avalanche risk 2 here these days - it was up to category 4 in January at times (max is 5). Apparently things get rather exciting at level 5, roads are closed, villages evacuated. We have had a few really warm days recently, the last two days it has been raining and I haven't been out of the house at all apart from the dawn trip to the boulangerie. Today was dry so thought I ought to have a little ski again to keep my hand in. Also thought it would be a good experience for me to find out what it was like skiing in really wet old snow! Well, it's very hard! and hurts alot when you fall over. I fell three times, silly falls, just catching edges, the ridges of snow so dense and unforgiving. Also very poor contrast so totally unable to see where the lumps and bumps of carved up piste were. It's great being able to ski over to the piste from the chalet, but not so easy coming back because the last section of piste that you come down is a steep (well I think so!) narrow run, that has been carved out into a kind of half pipe by everybody turning. And today it was carnage! bodies all over the place, heaps of snow and people everywhere, it took me such a frustratingly long time to get down the last short section because I didn't dare turn that I came off the piste a bit higher up than usual, and then found I couldn't turn at all in the deep snow off piste. So I sat down a few times (unintentionally), skis came off a few times, and then I gave up and walked down the last 100m - sinking in up to mid-thigh at every step. Wish I felt I was getting a bit better at this lark, but it still feels nearly as difficult and scary as it did a month ago. That's not true of course, I am getting better, but not nearly fast enough.

Oh well, quick shower, back to work now. Just remembered that the crew at Port Lockroy are leaving today! locking up, end of another season. I think none of them are particularly looking forward to coming home. They have been much more diligent than we were about updating the official UKAHT blog - there is a link on the right here. Sounds like they have had a lot of fun - and with an extra member of staff and fewer visitors they must have had a bit more leisure too!

Leeks and daffodils

2009-03-01T05:47:00.011-03:00

Was trying hard to remember what the 1st of March signified ..... of course, it's St David's Day. Shame Wales got trounced by France in the 6 Nations on Friday - no, not really, it's about time they were beaten. And Scotland won, hoorah! I haven't really just been a couch potato watching sport, honest. But you have to lie on the sofa with a cup of tea some of the time.

Yesterday was just the most glorious weather, we have had some wonderful spring-like sunshine this week, and I had myself organised to finish work early and go for a ski. Was v brave and decided to go back to do a run that I had cried in terror all the way down the last time I did it. Slightly nervous, and it took me a while to get down, but I got there in the end! Well, once you have started there really isn't a lot of choice - though there was one bail out option of a button lift that would take me back to the top and the telecabine back down to safety (which is what I did last time). I have discovered what it is that makes some runs terrifying for me - it's not even necessarily the steepness, it's the view! If I can't see the run bottoming out, if it is a convex slope and you are looking straight down to the valley floor a looooong way down, then I go to pieces and have to start taking deep breaths and closing my eyes!

This is scary!

And this.

This is not.

It's all in the head. And partly in the legs. Have discovered that now I can ski a bit it is really hard work, a couple of hours, even minutes sometimes, and my thighs are jelly! It has been a good year or so since I have done much sustained exercise, so am pretty wibbly and weak.

A new group are arriving today and tomorrow, am just about to commence lengthy session in the kitchen - planning to make creme caramels for the first time (prob a mistake not to have practised, will end up eating them all myself), meringues, lasagne, maybe a sticky toffee pudding, have already done a couple of cakes...... it gives me an excuse not to go skiing again!

D'oh!

2009-02-14T13:47:00.002-03:00

Just checked the score before setting off to catch the second half and
the game is over! Of course it was _in_ France so no need to add an
hour on to the kick-off time. Durrr.
Oh well, back to the ironing then.

Peripatetic again, but not a postmistress ...

2009-02-14T13:32:00.002-03:00

So I'm not still up a mountain in Argentina. Sorry to those of you that were wondering! However I'm still being drawn by the lure of snow and mountains and adventure and have ended up running away again, this time to spend a season in the French Alps. OK, so ironing and cleaning is not sooo adventurous, but I don't ski or speak French so there are some new learning opportunities to be had!
Have been meaning to resurrect the blog for some time now. And here is the beginning ... but the Scotland - France game has just got underway, and I thought I might wander off to the bar, should be a good atmosphere! Might help me meet some fellow local workers, should be easy to spot the Scots! I suspect we will be heavily outnumbered, will have to cheer quietly (assuming there is anything to cheer about). A bientot!

Fitzroy

2008-03-18T16:12:00.009-03:00

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

2008-03-18T15:59:00.004-03:00

¡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?

Drake Lake or Drake Shake?

2008-03-11T12:06:00.011-03:00

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.

Is that it then?

2008-03-08T14:16:00.002-03:00

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!

A winter wonderland again

2008-02-20T16:56:00.000-03:00

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

2008-02-20T16:42:00.000-03:00

cold toeses and noses

2008-02-19T12:21:00.001-03:00

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.

I've got mail

2008-02-16T12:22:00.000-03:00

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!

cuddly gentoos

2008-02-06T20:35:00.000-03:00

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?!

Piped aboard on the 25th

2008-01-27T17:24:00.000-03:00

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.

Chilli chocolate, jumbo oats

2008-01-21T14:03:00.000-03:00

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.

Another sunny day

2008-01-16T17:22:00.000-03:00

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!

Up on the roof

2008-01-08T11:36:00.000-03:00

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.

happy penultimate day of 2007

2007-12-30T13:28:00.000-03:00

It's a foul, wet and windy day for our 'maintenance day' so we are in the bunkroom trying to stay warm instead of up on the roof painting. Ships are changing schedules, some are changing times to agree with Argentinian time changes, the one that was meant to be here yesterday or the day before, depending, has hit a glacier after a power failure and is not coming at all, we think. It's all a bit vague at the moment. Not quite sure what we are doing for Hogmanay, but there are a few yachts around and a couple have come in to shelter behind our island. However if this wind continues then it is doubtful if we will meet for a party, it may just be a case of a radioed Happy New Year, and an early night!
There are so many happenings I have not mentioned, a case of time and power limitations, but Rachel is managing to produce a much fuller account which I recommend. When I started this it was just intended as an update for family and friends and I have been startled to find that word has spread and I have no idea how many readers there may be! More than the dozen that I began with. A couple of passengers in the shop the other day asked which one of us was Helen ... turned out they live near Kendal and there had been an article in the Westmorland Gazette about my sojourn here. Did any one else see it, is it true!?
I also didn't mention the school group that visited recently who were astonished and surprised to find an 'old girl' here - they were from St George's in Edinburgh where I went for my 6th form years. Much reminiscing, and photos for the school magazine. They had 328 large letters to post, as a fundraising venture - hmmm, a great deal of organising of stamp-sticking. Many different values of stamp required to make up the £1.10 for each letter, as I only have a limited numbers of each denomination.
Cold toes now, must be lunchtime - which I might eat in bed!

Santa has been, and so has the stork

2007-12-28T18:28:00.001-03:00

We have a Christmas baby! on Christmas Eve a passenger spotted a penguin chick, conveniently close to our hut. Pengy has since had a second successful hatching, and they are both peeping away and being fed regularly. How nice to see, we had been wandering around the island daily, looking at any standing mum (or dad I suppose) to see if there were still just eggs underneath or a little furry bundle. We are so looking forward to them running about, but slightly apprehensive about the pooping mess to come.
Talking of pooping penguins! we have a population explosion. There is a small plastic penguin that has been living in our bunkroom for some years, but his origin was unknown. He needs feeding with poops and then on winding up he flaps his way across the table, pooping regularly, but with not quite the same force as the real things fortunately. Now, the tragic thing was that this penguin had run out of poops and there were no suitable substitutes to be found. I knew none of this, but saw a pooper at home and brought one here for Rick's birthday. What joy! now there were two and they were able to poop and flap with each other to their heart's content. Now the amazing thing is that we have each received another as a christmas present! Oh dear, you can have too much of a good thing. We have managed to give one away so far, to a couple of Ukranian scientists who stayed with us on Boxing Day, but that's another story!

To briefly recap the last couple of days - we had a mad Christmas Eve, with three ships visiting and another calling in briefly to buy 2000 stamps and send mail. The evening turned sunny and warm and we were invited out for a barbecue on board. A lovely meal, quite surreal as they played King's College carols for us as we stood on deck in the sun with snowy mountains and icebergs all around. A far cry from the dark early nights of home. And Christmas day worked out perfectly with one ship in the morning, full of Christmas cheer. Rachel and I have taken to singing carols in the shop - sometimes the passengers join in, and sometimes they just look at us as if we are mad and ask us how long we have been here ..... too long obviously. We then had the afternoon to ourselves, put the fire on and warmed up the lounge, turned on the ipod Christmas carols, and had a cheese sandwich followed by Christmas pud and brandy sauce. Spent a lovely couple of hours opening presents and drinkin
g champagne - we were so lucky with timing as we received more mail on the 23rd - parcels and cards all round! a big thank you friends and family. A yacht came by later on, I did get round to making the mulled wine as we rushed about clearing up all the debris of paper and sweetie wrappings. So we had a few more visitors, and then happily another ship came in and invited us our for Christmas dinner - so we did get turkey after all.

Merry Christmas everyone!

2007-12-23T21:37:00.000-03:00

So much time has passed so quickly and Christmas is nearly upon us! Our first mail arrived, one sack from Stanley PO and I had two cards - hooray. One from Martin at Keswick YHA and one from Uncle John. Most of the packages were for Rachel and it was just as much fun seeing her open them and sharing in her Christmas wishes. We have more mail coming tomorrow morning, Christmas Eve, so who knows what surprises there will be.

We have had a holiday! A wonderful day and night out on National Geographic Endeavour, the same ship that took us for a day earlier in the season. It's so thoughtful of them to realise that we don't have much opportunity to get out and about, and then do something about it. They took us to visit our neighbours - Vernadsky and Palmer stations - the former Ukranian (though British til 1995) and the latter American. We had a lovely tour round Vernadsky which ended in the bar where we were plied with vodka - memories of Mongolia! They have a bra tree behind the bar (it's an all male station!!) - Rachel was persuaded to leave hers, but I've only got a couple for the next three months, so managed to make myself scarce at the crucial moment.

And on to Palmer station for the evening where they threw a party for crew and staff. They really live in some comfort there! Massive cinema screen, a whole wall of DVDs, popcorn machine, broadband internet, free phone calls, unlimited power. You might not even notice that you are in Antarctica. They couldn't believe how we live, but I think I prefer it!

So home again and back to work. Still no chicks on our island, though they have been seen nearby. We maybe just haven't spotted them yet. The weather is varied, sunny and then snowy again. We have had our first yachts around, three visited the other day. The passengers were climbing, skiing and kayaking. We watched them on our nearby glacier - it looked wonderful. And it was hard not to wish we had a little boat as they paddled their way through the brash ice in the evening sun. We were up on the roof in our lovely red overalls with tins of bitumen paint. We haven't made much progress with painting the whole building this year yet because of all the snow and wind.

Three ships in yesterday, two today, FOUR tommorrow! we'll be a bit pooped by the 25th, but will try and have some fun regardless. I have a plan to make mulled wine for our passengers on Christmas day, as I have done for the past years for beach clean volunteers and Millom Christmas Fair-goers. Doubt I will manage the mince pies though. Thanks to all for the lovely Christmas emails I have had - it doesn't really feel very festive here, so it's nice to hear it is happening elsewhere!

(no subject)

2007-12-12T19:14:00.000-03:00

Cold and snowing hard again! Where has summer gone? can't really complain as we have just had two glorious days.
Spent an evening sitting down by the rusty chains with a cup of tea, actually ended up lying on a flat rock like a seal. Very relaxing.
Less soothed however when I decided to uncover my long-unseen feet and give them a bracing salty dip, and on doing so discovered chilblains! The other two have had them for weeks and I was feeling marginally smug about my obviously superior circulation and/or boots. I have three on one foot and a couple on the other! Not too itchy and sore yet, perhaps now it is getting warmer I can take extra care and make them go away. So the next morning we had breakfast on the verandah, and I made a foot bath with peppermint and tea tree oils. Very nice, I'm sure that's helped.

We have a morning off, no ships! so do a little joinery with Rick. We make a raised board for under my bunk bed to enable me to slide my clothing boxes over a bar on the floor, which was annoying me. Fine job, and now it they glide in and out with ease.
I have my first run! We all set off round Bill's island, I get wet feet from looking at the view instead of the puddles, but it's really enjoyable. We can't get round our island as well though - the tide is a little too high and there is a great cornice of snow to crawl under so we stick to Bill's. The shop is warm from the sun, and we are enjoying a little after-run stretch when I spot Europa coming into the bay. What a glorious sight! she is a tall ship, built in 1911, and looks so much like a historic expedition ship coming into view under sail. We sit and watch on the verandah, wave at some figures on deck who wave back. They come and pick us up and we go over for a pre-vist beer. Later we go back again for our first barbecue of the season. The weather is wonderful, there is a minke whale in the bay, and a leopard seal swims round and round the ship watching us watching it. We have a lovely evening, great food and company. There is a bad flu bug on board though and we ho
pe we haven't caught it.

Next morning they pick us up and we go over to Jougla Point on Wienke Island. It's so close, and we've never been there yet! There is another gentoo colony there, and blue-eyed shags too. We have a great walk, see our island from a different perspective! and go over the low ridge to view the Peltier Channel. Slide down the snow slope back to sea level, filling our jackets and trousers with snow, and back to the ship for lunch. Afterwards they take us round the corner to another British Hut, Damoy. There used to be an airstrip on the snow here - the hut was built in 1975 and used up to 1993 to enable staff and stores to be flown south to Rothera when sea ice prevented ship access. After we have a look round they whizz us back home in a zodiac and we have a peaceful night in - all really tired by our day off!

satellite communications

2007-12-07T18:35:00.000-03:00

Have heard from home that our post is starting to arrive! Joe, one of the camera crew, lent me his satellite phone and I went and stood outside in a blizzard yesterday and phoned home. Got through after a bit of wandering around trying to find a signal, wishing I'd put gloves on! It was such a bad line we spent the first couple of minutes shouting "can you hear me ... I can hear you..." at each other. I also had the problem of drowning out the penguins. Sorry Mum! not altogether satisfactory, but better than nothing ... maybe. Also left a message on Bill's answerphone - of course he was out!
Then out of the cloud and snow I saw the next ship arriving so back to work. Some of the staff from USA Palmer Station - our nearest neighbours - came too, on a day out. Brought us freshly baked bread! Finished up work at 8ish again - dinner and couple of beers and then more filming. 'The Lockroy staff relax in the evening' Rick reading, Rachel writing and me knitting!
This morning the next ship was in at 7am, so early porridge, the first crew were here at quarter to. But the wind changed direction, and my goodness there is still a lot of ice out there, and it all started arriving in our bay. It built up so quickly, it was amazing. Everyone was bundled back on board and they scooted off to clearer waters hopefully. The ice is beautiful though! We have a few more big bergs close by now - we have had one really large one since we have been here, which is gradually losing lumps. The giant petrels and cape petrels swim around it, the bottom of the berg brings up food from the sea floor.
Anyway, we shall wait and see what the morning brings. We did have another visit this afternoon, but they didn't stay long either, the wind is howling and it is nervy work watching to see where the ice goes next. The poor penguins are having such a tough time. We are pretty chilly too! yesterday was the coldest I have been yet in the shop. Early night tonight I think - it's been another long day!

A few more pictures

2007-12-07T08:29:00.000-03:00

These are the last for now. Seems like they have all the necessary accoutrements for a cultured and comfortable life - a snowman, flag and nice sunny spot for a cup of tea!

penguin news

2007-12-05T14:57:00.000-03:00

Here we are again, another day, another couple of hundred people! Having a bit of a rest before Fram, the fabulous new Hurtigruten ship, arrives in half an hour or so.

I've had a lovely long email from Phil - thank you! - telling me all about the Christmas un-Bakerstead weekend. It sounded great - but I'm sure you didn't really have any fun without me! I find myself often thinking about cycling up the Duddon for some reason! finishing with a pint or two in Broughton. We have again had a couple of not so busy days which gives too much time for thinking, which is not always a good thing. A couple of ships changed their plans and we didn't have the visits we expected.
But now everything is hectic again - two ships a day, plus yesterday the Nordnorge brought us a two-man film crew. They have been commissioned by the Antarctic Heritage Trust to make an information film to show passengers on the larger ships before they get here. We can't always go on board, the bigger ships often don't have a lecture theatre big enough for all of the passengers, and they also have several languages on board. We had a wonderful visit from Polar Star this morning, with a number of British aboard and there were some great comments and activities being filmed, with our visitors being very cooperative. The film crew are only here for 2 days and they leave again on Friday.
The snow is beginning to melt, and the rocks are emerging. Every day we find a new artefact (new to me anyway). The whale bones, the sledges, various other bits of machinery, graffiti (the date 1921 carved into the rocks) - even the mooring chains at the landing site, which are left over from the whaling days too, are only just starting to appear. It's hard to imagine what it will look like when the snow has completely gone. I don't know how deep it is! Rick says the path from the landing site is still well buried. The visitors are walking up to the hut on old snow, and this melts during the day under pressure of the footfall, and then freezes into an ice rink at night. I was out at 8.30 this morning with an ice axe bashing the surface to rough it up a bit to make it safer.
I believe that there are now new pictures visible on this page! I haven't seen them, in fact I don't even know what they are of. They were selected by Tudor who took some of mine home on his laptop. My brother says that they are all blue sky and crisp snow - hmmm, I wouldn't call that representative. I may try and get a couple of blizzard shots up there too! The penguins seem to be doing well at the moment, they are about 2 weeks behind last year however due to the lingering snow. Many of them have three eggs, which is unusual. They can't really incubate three, and we see them turning round and round trying to fit them all in. It may be because the first ones were laid some time ago and the weather was so cold and wet since then they have assumed that the first egg is addled and have started again. However they don't have the wit to push out the old ones and sometimes it is the new ones that are left out in the cold. It's amazing the eggs are ever warm enough to hatch, as th
e birds are constantly on their feet defending their stony nests from marauders! We saw one poor penguin just outside our front door trying to chase off two robbing penguins coming at her from different sides - and while she was occupied one of her eggs rolled out behind her and was eaten by a sheathbill. There are pieces of egg and splashes of yolk all over the island now - the skuas are around all the time. The penguins make a terrible hoarse wailing noise whenever a skua lands nearby or flies overhead - it sounds desperate. But the skua babies have to eat too I suppose.

Enough from me for now - better go and check the shop is ship shape, but I think we are ready for the fray!

More birds

2007-12-05T08:53:00.000-03:00

I'm guessing these are more gentoos:

These are sheathbills (he says knowledgeably, cos the photo is so named):

And here are some more penguins (gentoos again, presumably) enjoying the snow shower:

The shop

2007-12-05T08:16:00.000-03:00

The staff proudly showing off their wares:

and Helen and Rachel modelling the exclusive t-shirts (presumably)

Fetching ice

2007-12-04T09:26:00.001-03:00

Helen (top) and unidentifiable togged-up people (below) collecting ice:

Some of that ice doesn't look so white...

Penguin Parade

2007-12-04T08:40:00.000-03:00

Another picture, apparently these are Gentoos:

Pictures from Port Lockroy

2007-12-03T09:05:00.000-03:00

Some pictures have arrived in my in-box, courtesy of Tudor who has just returned. So I'll post them here:

This is the building itself, in case anyone couldn't guess.

Social whirl

2007-11-28T10:43:00.000-03:00

We've had some busy days! things are starting to hot up (but not the
weather! still lots of wind and snow - we are digging feet of snow out
of the landing site every time a ship radios us to give warning that
they are about to arrive). But the hardest thing is combining the
meals,drinks and showers on board with work! We didn't know whether the
Nordnorge would come to visit as scheduled since they had been so active
in the Explorer rescue and deviated from their intended route. Then they
contacted us to ask if they could come the following day, in Explorer's
slot. But as before, we had a radio call after dinner to say they were
here in the bay, and would we like to come on board! Mmmm not a
difficult decision, even for me! It was lovely so many of the expedition
staff came over to collect us, and we were home again! So strange being
back on the Nordnorge, and sad to miss Tudor being there too. Then we
were offered the chance to stay overnight, and since the weather had
calmed down Rick said yes. Fantastic. We had a cabin each, and I was
wondering if I would be able to sleep on my own! Then after a great
shower - first for 10 days! (we had resorted to snow washes again over
the past few days) we adjourned to the bar. Captain Hansen came to join
us - he's an amazing man. The staff were all really exhausted after a
hard couple of days looking after the rescued passengers. It was
extraordinary to be on the ship so soon after the event, and very moving
listening to them talking about it. The Nordnorge were near by only
because they had changed their plans, and it still took them 4 hours
flat out to get there. We were amazed that the expedition leader on the
Explorer had the presence of mind in spite of what had just happened, to
ask Nordnorge to pass a message on to say hello to Rick and 'sorry about
your christmas presents - they are at the bottom of the sea!' So sadly
it's true! thanks for anyone who posted things to me, but I probably
won't get them unless you missed the first post! We had a chance to use
the internet - I saw my blog and Rachel's. Thanks James - for putting
the links in it and forwarding comments to me.

So we had a lovely breakfast on the Nordnorge, after actually not
sleeping all that well - we are not used to the humming engines any
more. Then they popped us back on shore with just enough time to prepare
for the passengers. Oh my goodness the Endeavour want to come in today
too - we receive an email. They can see we have an empty slot on the
schedule. They are delayed so we have dinner on board and then an
evening landing. We have a tilley lamp on in the shop which makes a
great atmosphere. They shop well - it always helps if we have been on
board before hand - Rick does his Lockroy talk and promotes the
charitable nature of the shop, and Rachel and I model T shirts! We also
think that a couple of glasses of wine before the shopping helps us add
up faster - Rick is doubtful! We cash up, empty the postbox and cancel
stamps til midnight. Another long day!

Sad news

2007-11-23T21:18:00.000-03:00

Rachel wakes at 7 and declares that she can hear an engine - pops
outside and Ocean Nova are in the back bay. We were expecting them at 7
pm! so leap up and dress and are whisked over for breakfast of melon and
yoghurt, sausage, scrambled egg etc great. Shame we are all smelly and
unwashed and in our grubby thermals. Their passengers come shopping and
are gone by 11. Just as they leave the expedition leader tells us that
they have just heard that Explorer has abandoned ship - we retire to our
bunk room for elevenses and check emails and discover that it is news
already and the ship is sinking. Rick is very sad, we are all shocked.
They were due in to us the day after tomorrow. And the ships that are
coming tomorrow, Nordnorge and Antarctic Dream have gone to help, so we
don't know if they will come either. Rachel is gutted as she had quite a
lot of post, gifts from family and friends and stuff she was sending to
herself, that had been put on the Explorer by Stanley PO.

After lunch we restock the shop which takes an hour or so and lie down
to wait for Polar Pioneer due at 2pm. The weather has worsened, and the
penguins are all buried! Still sitting on their nests with just heads
sticking out. The landing steps are completely snowed in again and Rick
goes to dig them out. Read and snooze and keep warm in sleeping bag -
they are here! at 4pm. A nice shopping session, lots of Australians and
friendly staff.

Restock shop again! we keep repeating the mantra 'it can only get
easier..' as we empty boxes. They are piled to the ceiling and stacked
three deep in places. Thanks Tudor! Inevitably the small blue ladies
fleeces are at the bottom of a stack of six. But we are finding our way
around more quickly, each time we find the thing that isn't what we are
looking for we know where it is when we do need it!

Enough from me now, Rachel is blogging like mad! and I am probably
repeating her. Shame I can't send photos, might try and post some home
or to james? cheerio, time for bed, thanks again for emails, Phil, Helen
Karin, David - lovely to hear from you, and that you are all having bike
rides for me!

And then there were three..

2007-11-23T20:58:00.000-03:00

To continue briefly - we get up on the Endeavour and have a wonderful
time. Try to make contact with the ships that might have been coming in
to visit us, but they are not in the area, so the Endeavour keeps us on
board for the whole day - cruising through the Lemaire channel, one of
the most scenic spots, and down to Petermann Island where we land and
see Adelies and the Oceanites people who are studying them. The sun
comes out, the pack ice is amazingly thick, we are crunching through it,
the views are stunning. Try not to spend too much time on deck as we
have no sunglasses or sun screen with us. We have endless cups of tea on
board sitting in the library, fabulous food, and a sauna! End up getting
back to Lockroy at about 11.30pm, and a sad quick packing-up for Tudor.
Endeavour has agreed to take him to Ushaia to fly home, so that the
Klebnikov didn't need to wait around to try and collect him. I am busy
counting out money and adding up credit card slips - the zodiac driver
is waiting - Tudor comes to help as I am all fingers and thumbs in the
cold and dark. And he is off at midnight into the beam from the ship's
spotlight. The three of us go to bed feeling at bit sad and quiet.

Fresh fruit! hot shower!

2007-11-21T10:18:00.000-03:00

Excitement! We are sitting down to Rick's special curry feast and I am
in the shop titivating when I hear a stampede to the front door - the
radio has spoken for the first time! and Antarctic Dream (who we were
expecting, hoping, would arrive tomorrow morning) is just anchoring in
the bay. We all rush out to look for her - we have been invited on board
for a shower and drink! Wonderful, ecstatic news! Finish eating, quick
wash up dishes, flapping around packing all that we will need, T-shirts
instead of thermals, shampoo, clean socks if I can find any. It is
snowing hard outside, we can't see anything but can hear the hum of
their generator, and the buzz of the approaching zodiac. We have
struggled into our immersion suits for the first time! I love them! they
are super snug with wellies attached to trousers, waterproof full length
zips, neoprene cuffs and hood - and metal hoops at the chest for lifting
us out of the water ....
And a quick hot shower, and up into the bar for presentation to the
viewing public - going to have to get used to being the focus of much
questioning - it's not so different to working at Black Sail really! My
first Pisco Sour, and the passengers present us with a couple of apples
and oranges each. We have many promises of bringing over bacon
sandwiches in the morning! Back to our little hut, bed at midnight after
a cuppa.

The next day, up quickly, no porridge in bed, our first shop. Surprising
how tiring it is on the brain - my adding up is getting noticeably
quicker fortunately. The whirlwind is over and they leave. A quick
lunch, cash up, Tudor and Rachel wrestle with boxes in the boat shed to
get the stock necessary for refilling the shelves. Then at about 3pm we
have National Geographic Endeavour on the horizon. The weather has
deteriorated significanltly - we wonder whether they will try to land
passengers at all. We have done our best to cut good steps in the snow
but the windy is gusty and strong. They make it ashore and we have
another busy couple of hours in the shop. Just beginning to cash up at
6pm, and think about restocking - we may have another ship first thing
in the morning - when the message comes to drop everything and pack
..... we are invited over for dinner and another shower!! Don't even
feel like I need another one for a couple of weeks now. So off we go -
the ride out there is very rough and bumpy, but soon we are in the warm
in someone's cabin, lent to us for showering. A wonderful meal, chats
and drinks, we see the Kapitan Klebnikov going backwards and forwards
through the window, sitting out the storm, we wonder if it will head off
or come in tomorrow to pick up Tudor and take him home as planned. The
weather gets wilder, I'm a bit worried about getting back, and quite
surprised that we came on board at all. But we are staying, the decision
has been made that it would be foolish to go out. A bit of reshuffling
and we are found beds in various cabins. I am the only one who has
brought their toothbrush! But no toothpaste so borrow some from my room
mate. Rachel and I stay up til past midnight exploring the ship and
visitng the bridge.

I am writing this a few days later - we have another ship due in soon,
got to go and tidy up. Thanks for the messages I have had from everyone
- sorry I am not able to spend the time replying individually - it's
been great to hear from home though. Missing my bike a bit! and a pint
of decent warm beer - most drinks are well chilled here! The penguins
have jsut started laying eggs - they have done an amazing job of melting
the snow back to bare rock for nesting on, by pooing on it and then
lying down, they are getting so filthy! It's great fun to see them
stealing pebbles from each other and beating each other up with their
wings, which creates a tremendous slapping sound as they go tumbling
down the snow in a whirl.

Right then, that's it for now, will complete the exciting Endeavour tale
soon! Byee

Lonely as an iceberg...

2007-11-17T11:25:00.000-03:00

...only 1500 penguins for company!
Yes, we have now had 4 ships cancel - beginning to worry about the 8
tonnes of stock we have to shift! Carry on painting and scraping and
sanding - the place is looking really good now. The weather improves. I
have breakfast on the verandah for the first time. Totally silent except
for the splosh of diving penguins and the patter of their flappy feet on
the snow, occasional rumble of collapsing glaciers and the squabbling of
the sheathbills. They are getting pretty lively on the roof at 5am these
days so we are still rising early. Eating reasonably well - forcing
ourselves to get through last year's left overs before we begin on the
food we brought. We are getting more and more inventive - chilli con
spam, salmon spaghetti surprise, soya mince rogan josh. We are able to
eat most meals without the use of a knife, or much chewing that's for sure.
I have had three washes too over the last two and a half weeks! Two of
them snow washes at the landing site. A flannel, a dollop of snow and a
good rub, top half and then bottom half. Not as bad as it sounds on a
sunny still day. Great views! And once when the weather was wild for a
while, half a bowl of warm water in the bunkroom in front of the gas fire.
Had a lovely afternoon off the other day - completed a total
circumnavigation of both islands - Bill's and Goudier - at low tide. Saw
much marine invertebrate life. Sea urchins, limpets, starfish and a
giant isopod! which only I was brave enough to fetch for closer
inspection (necessitating removal of trousers, socks, shoes and a fair
bit of a paddle - it was pretty bracing to say the least but I survived,
just a little bit pinker-skinned than before).
Must be time for a cup of tea - bye for now!

ice, ice everywhere, but not a drop to drink!

2007-11-07T18:36:00.000-03:00

We wake up to cold, cloudy and windy weather. Three more days of sanding
and painting - a bit of a challenge as each coat takes two days to dry -
it is above freezing indoors, but only just. We are making good
progress, the kitchen is done, the ionospherics room also. We tidy up
again - the Nordnorge is due to visit us - but another email again
brings bad news! Apparently there is a lot more ice around - the sea is
clear where we are, but it seems the change in weather and wind
direction has brought ice out of the Weddell sea and blocked the
Gerlache and Bransfield straits. So they aren't coming! We were looking
forward not only to seeing the staff again, and also to the possibility
of some fresh food, getting our clothes washed and stocking up on water.
And another of the large ships, the Orlova, has cancelled too and the
film crew that were coming out to stay with us for 5 days are also not
coming! Begin to wonder how long it will be before we see another
person! We have a long gap in the schedule now, the next ship is not due
in til the 13th, and who knows if they will be able to come either?

We rally round and cheer each other up and decide that we can do lots
more decorating - much of it hasn't been done since the base was
renovated in 96 by Rick and the other team members. But first we have to
brave the snow and strong winds and go down to the shore with buckets
and ice axes to chip pieces of ice off the beached bergs for our water.
It's pretty wild and windy out there, and we come back with alot of
spindrift down our necks. Got enough for a couple of days though - just
need to encourage it to melt now!

First Shop! Or not.

2007-11-07T18:14:00.000-03:00

After a hard day's work moving our 600 boxes and trying to get them all
under cover before the weather changed, we set to getting the shop
organised. First we sanded and painted the ceiling and a couple of
walls, before having a general all round scrub up. Had an email from our
first visiting ship, the Alexander Humboldt, to say they would be with
us a day early with 300 passengers! Help! Spent a very long day
unpacking shop stock, trying to fit 15 different t-shirt combinations of
price and size on the limited shelving - not to mention the fleeces and
kiddies clothing unsold from last year - and then last thing making
prices labels for it all. A late night, all very tired.
Up bright and early, not knowing when the ship will arrive - Rick checks
emails - they say 3pm, so we have time to do the final titivations.
However no ship turns up - and at 4 ish we receive another email saying
that they are unable to make it through the Gerlache Strait - too much
ice. We are all a bit disappointed and deflated, but turn back to more
painting followed by a peaceful evening and early night.

We're In!

2007-11-01T09:54:00.000-03:00

Hello all, just a quick message as batteries are low - we got ourselves
and our 600 boxes landed on Monday night - good thing it was light til
11. The weather has been fantastically kind to us, blue skies and
sunshine since we got here, no wind at all, so it is feeling almost
warm! Only just below freezing most days, have a bowl of ice in our
bunkroom which is melting very slowly so I guess not much warmer in here!.

Better go, got snow to dig. The penguins are wonderful! the sheathbills
less so! We have also been visited by a wounded elephant seal and a
chinstrap penguin so far.

Will post again when I can. Thanks for your messages, from Mum and Alan,
it's nice to hear from you - yes, give susannah the blog address, that's
fine Alan. Rachel's blog is very good - much better than mine!

www.rachelhazellisaway.wordpress.com

Helen x

Will we, won't we .....

2007-10-29T19:21:00.000-03:00

We are just rounding the south tip of Wiencke Island, probably now within half an hour of Port Lockroy, glorious sunny evening, plenty of fresh new snow around. We were informed this morning that they were going to try and land us and our 9 tonnes of cargo tonight! So we had to bring our on-board shop forward to lunchtime today - it was mayhem! and a good taste of the weeks to come. Took an amazing amount of money in 3 hours - wish it was my shop. Surprised how tiring it was, we were all quite exhausted afterwards.

Have had a couple of landings over the past days - visited a Brazilian base, it was cozy despite being under snow. They had dug a path down to the front door which appeared underground, but of course wasn't normally. Was very jealous of their central heating!

Just been out to see a passing pod of orcase, and now I must go and put my last few things in bags and get my thermals on! If we don't make land then I will be able to write again soon .... if we do land it may be some time!

2007-10-27T11:36:00.000-03:00

A glorious day in South Georgia! We moor up overnight just off Grytviken, in the bay, so have a beautifully calm night and a good sleep. Up for a run at 6.30, breakfast and then off on the first boat at 9am. Meet Sarah Lurcock, the Postmistress here, good to make contact with her and again pick up some tips, though she is pretty busy with our shipload of tourists. Visit Shackleton’s grave, and the museum which has many old whaling artefacts, and some wonderful photographs of Shackleton’s expeditions. We really couldn’t have asked for a better day, it’s so beautiful and I talk to the museum curator about staffing for the next season! It’s just a thought – might as well keep my options open! In the evening we have a silent movie of Frank Hurley’s cine film of the Imperial Transantarctic Expedtion. It’s astonishing footage, all the more so because of what it survived. The black and white photo above shows the 22 men left on Elephant Island waving off the James Caird as Shackleton leaves to try and reach South Georgia after the loss of the Endurance.

2007-10-27T11:29:00.001-03:00

First ice bergs! Then we see plenty more in the next few days. Rick says he doesn’t remember seeing such big ones here this time last year. They will have come out of the Weddell sea a couple of years ago.

Penguins galore

2007-10-27T11:02:00.000-03:00

Another couple of days fly by at sea – a mix of runs, visits to the gym and sauna, lectures, bits of work, punctuated all too regularly by enormous meals of wonderful food.
Arrive South Georgia – two landings the first day, at Fortuna Bay, followed by a visit to the derelict whaling station of Stromness. King penguin colonies at both places, the weather is pretty dire at Fortuna Bay. Sit in the horizontal sleet waiting for penguins to walk past me, some come up really close to have a look. The chicks are so funny, standing around hunched against the wind in their enormous fur coats. Plenty of Antarctic skuas around too, hunting around for scraps. Getting pretty cold now, but don’t want to walk back facing into the wind and snow! Many people leave before their allotted 90 minutes ashore.

Postmistress Lessons

2007-10-27T10:55:00.000-03:00

A great day in Stanley, changeable weather, at times bitter and then glorious sun in the afternoon. Spend a couple of hours in the post office, picking up £68,000 worth of stamps – makes for a pretty heavy suitcase! I go back to Sally’s house (she was the Postmistress at Lockroy last year) for lunch and a chat about running the PO. She has some good advice about how to keep people moving quickly through the shop and prevent postcard frenzies! Then meet the others again for a fun game of badminton! Not what the average tourist does in Stanley I suppose! The others have all been here before, but when I point out that it is my first time and I really ought to be seeing the sights, Rick and Tudor take me on a guided tour for an hour or so til we end up in the pub, which is a Falkland Islands experience not to be missed!

2007-10-26T15:49:00.000-03:00

rugby on the beach

2007-10-26T15:44:00.001-03:00

Had two superb landings in the Falklands - Westpoint Island and New Island. Had the good luck (or skill) to position myself next to our resident bird expert on landing - within the first minute we had spotted turkey vultures, kelp geese, upland geese, flightless steamer ducks, striated caracara, blackish oystercatchers (yes they really are called that), long-tailed meadow larks (aka Falkland robins - bright orange breast) and a pair of peregrines. Wonderful! Strolled over the island to black-browed albatross and rockhopper colony. Amazingly close, and unperturbed by our presence.

Some of our party members made a run for the first boat back to catch the rugby final - I hung back and by happy discovery found a man with a radio! so half a dozen of us stood on a beach listening to the last 20 minutes. Not that it cheered us any. Quite a bizarre place to be listening to the world cup final though!

2007-10-26T15:31:00.000-03:00

It's swell on board

2007-10-20T12:14:00.000-03:00

Third morning on the Nordnorge – getting up to grey skies and drizzle. Up on deck a little later than usual feeling pretty groggy from a rough night and drugged by the Stugeron! Poor Rachel wasn’t very well, the swell got up a bit just before we went to bed, but she has resorted to her first ‘anti-nausea patch’ and is coping fine now. Too wet and slippy for our morning run, so brisk power walking round the deck followed by sun salutations, which have worked as the sun is now out! Our numbers are swelling – there were 6 of us taking the sea air today! Usual splendid breakfast and then an IAATO briefing to prepare us for Antarctic landings, followed by our own briefings on Health & Safety, and the daily routine at Lockroy from Tudor and Rick. Very sleepy afterwards! Rachel had a snooze while I went for lunch.

off out now to look for albatrosses! there were a few giant petrels following us earlier.

We arrive at the Falklands tomorrow, landing at some small islands with albatross colonies, and then on to Stanley on Sunday. We have been trying to figure out how to get to Stanley by tomorrow afternoon to watch the rugby final! but I don’t think it is going to be possible, and there is no TV reception on board ship. Oh, well, as mum always says, they will probably do better if we are not watching!

boxes, boxes everywhere!

2007-10-20T12:12:00.000-03:00

We have got onto a routine of a 20-minute run round deck 5 followed by some yoga before breakfast. It’s great to have Rachel as a running partner, there is also a Norwegian lady who we have teamed up with, and tomorrow we will get the boys out too! We will have to see how long we can keep going for, until the seas get too rough for it to be safe I suppose. The days are flying by, I went to a lecture about the sub-antarctic islands, and tonight they screened a couple of episodes of David Attenborough’s Life in the Freezer. But we are still all a bit tired from missing a night’s sleep on the plane, and look forward to lying down at night.
We went to investigate all our boxes of cargo today, and weeded out the ones we will need for the on board shop that we will do after South Georgia. Was pleased to see that my box of personal stuff was there – I had wondered whether it might still be in Rick’s spare room, but didn’t like to ask!
More bird-watching this afternoon, plus reading the manual for the new camera I bought in duty free, and the draft Operations Manual for Lockroy. Then cocktails and dinner. It’s a hard job, but someone’s got to do it!

coz I'm a wanderer...

2007-10-20T12:09:00.000-03:00

Rachel is writing a blog! She has already posted messages and images, and will probably be more dedicated about keeping it up than I will be. The address is
www.rachelhazellisaway.wordpress.com so it might be more worthwhile checking there to see how things are going with us. We will also be sending updates every now and again to the UK AHT website www.ukaht.org

The talk today with the crew has been about the extent of the ice cover. Apparently Bransfield strait is full of ice (with one tabular iceberg the size of Elephant Island), there is 9/10ths ice cover all around Lockroy and it isn’t looking likely that we will be able to land at all. Rachel asked our First Officer what the Nordnorge could cope with and the answer was 1 or 2 tenths ice, he said the ship was fragile ‘like an eggshell’, which wasn’t immensely reassuring! So we may well have another week up to Ushaia and then have to come back down. We will have to see what happens when we get nearer. Last year it was completely clear at this time.

We have had superb weather, hot and sunny and very calm. This morning I saw my first albatrosses, following the ship. Wandering – they are HUGE – and black-browed. Also the little cape petrels are everywhere. It is so warm that I really can’t imagine that we are heading towards ice! although we have a way to go yet.

We're Off!

2007-10-20T12:06:00.001-03:00

Safely arrived on the Nordnorge! basking on deck in tropical heat, fighting off the mosquitos. The one thing I didn’t bring for an Antarctic voyage was insect repellent! or shorts – I have had to borrow some from Rick who has brought two pairs (!).

We had a smooth and well-prepared journey, once I had found my passport, collected my North Face boots (on the morning of departure!) and got off the wrong train and onto the correct one! The only stumbling block was our 31 kg of excess baggage! the bill was over £600, but Rick did some smooth talking and got it down to £100 in the end, which was a bit of a relief.

We settled in to our cozy cabins, I am sharing with Rachel, and Rick with Tudor, then had a superb buffet dinner and watched from the deck in the dark as we set sail out of Buenos Aires and off down river guided by several pilots.

About this blog

2007-10-15T06:15:00.000-03:00

This blog is administered by James. Helen is now (Oct 15) on her way to Port Lockroy and should be there there around the start of November, staying for about 4 months. Hopefully she will have some email access (or else this blog is pretty useless!) but it may be rather limited. They have an Iridium phone and a generator...

(Update 2 Nov: she has landed and the email seems to be working.)

Comments posted here will be sent to me and I can forward them on (once she's there). Or email me directly. You can subscribe to email updates via the form on the right hand side, or use an RSS aggregator like Bloglines.

Email subscription now available

2007-10-14T23:33:00.000-03:00

I've set up an email subscription service, available via the form on the right hand side of the page. All you have to do is enter your address, click the "subscribe" button and then click the link in the confirmation email which will be sent to you.

So that way you can get sent any new posts without having to come looking for them. It sends at most one email per day, and only on days where there is new content.