Ice axe in hand, this was taken about 8:30pm at night standing on the sea ice in front of the Aurora Australis, just before our walk over to Gardiner Island.
This little guy was our tour guide for the walk. He was very eager to meet us and get his photo taken. He loved all the attention and ended up calling his mates over as well.
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Yes that is suncream I am wearing. Temp was around -3 and very little wind....beautiful.
Gardiner Island is home to about 20,000 Adelie Penguins. Amazingly, they are very sure footed climbing up and down the rocks. The island was very noisy, and very smelly. No matter how many times I see them, they always make me laugh when I see them walk or slide on their bellies across the ice.
This iceberg is on the south side of the island and the photo taken around 10:00pm. As you can see, the sun was just on the horizon and the elevation where it pretty much stays all night. It just seems to move around the horizont till it gets to the other side and then rises again at about 2:00am!. Even though the sea ice is about 1.5m thick some of these icebergs stil manage to "drift" around the bay.
Stating the obvious. Belive it or not, this is a sign the Division use just outside the ship, to remind you that you are working/walking in an icy area. OH&S at it's best!
The first week on station has truly flown by. There has been so much happening. It has mostly involved unloading the ship, including around 800,000 litres of fuel, 200,000 litres of water and plenty of cargo and supplies to last some of the summer before the next resupply.
There are now 6 expeditioners "deployed" to the Amery Ice shelf which is around 300km to the west. They are a team of 5 scientists and a mechanic using hot water drilling equipment, drilling through the ice to the seabed. From memory I think the ice is around 800m thick! They also take ice samples to analyse later. Every night at 1830 I talk to these guys and they transmit a "sked" (scheduled sit rep report) to me over HF radio. This is to make sure they are in good health, let us know if they need anything, give us a weather observation and let us know what they are up to. We also give them a met forecast for the next couple of days.
Next week I will take a few photos of the station and the building I work out of.
I loved Gardner Island as well Nige. It's amazing to watch the Adelie's in their natural environment and to see the food chain at work with the Skewer's hanging around for their next feed. Have the Adelie's got many young chicks yet?
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