Frozen Cheese

2011-07-08T12:13:00.000-07:00

Some Things Never Change

Here's a link to my account of the month of June here at Rothera, recently posted on the British Antarctic Survey Website:

http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/living_and_working/diaries/rothera/2011/06/index.php

2011-06-09T12:31:00.000-07:00

Winter Team 2011

Take a look at the mad men and women I'm stranded with for the next dark months! Should be interesting...
Left to right, back, to front we are: Dave (Communications Manager), Rod (Base Commander),
Curly (Vehicle Mechanic), Nick (Plumber), Lorna (Chef), Vicki (Doctor), Malcolm (Field Assistant), Mike (Field Assistant), Cheese (Field Assistant), Tom (Field Assistant), Tamsin (that's me...Meteorologist), Terri (Marine Biologist), Frazer (Electrician), Dave (Dive Officer), Simmo (Marine Assistant), Tomo (Generator Mechanic), Ross (Electronics Engineer), Dave (Boatman), Gavin (Carpenter, Ian (Field Assistant).

2011-04-24T12:17:00.000-07:00

Winter Trip

Admiring the view from the summit of imaginatively named peak N26

My humble abode

Another Antarctic summit, this time I descended in style, snowboarding

View across the bay. We travel around the island two by two, each driving a snowmobile and pulling a sledge carrying everything we need to survive, all tied together by thick ropes just in case we are unlucky enough to drive across a crevass.

2010-12-06T11:07:00.000-08:00

ANTARCTIC HIGHLIGHTS

People are always asking me why I keep coming back to Antarctica. Well, as much as I love my job, it's the lifestyle that really has me hooked. The perks that these images hint towards are definitely a big part of the appeal.

Exploring the incredible shades of the ice, up close. That's me at the helm.
The glacier front of the Sheldon glacier, source of many of the icebergs in the bays around the base, as it retreats.

Tom roping up on the ramp above base ready for some survival skills training.

Tom enjoying one of the first rock climbs of the summer.

2010-11-12T05:39:00.000-08:00

Rockhoppers

Yesterday I added a ninth species of penguin to my collection and they rate pretty highly on my coolest penguin leader board. The funky rockhoppers with their crazy hairdos and bright red eyes were a joy to watch as they bounced up the cliffs then danced about the colony until they found their nest. The only way to get to this remote spot on the deserted Falklands coastline was via landrover. We took what our guide called 'his local high street', zigzagging across peat bogs and craggy outcrops until we arrived in the middle of nowhere . It was worth the ride as not only the penguins but the scenery was stunning and it may be some of the last land I see that isn't hidden beneath a blanket of cold white lovliness. Mmmm, snow, powdery fresh snow, how I miss it. Can't wait to get even further south and it shouldn't be long now. Hopefully departing on the Dash 7 tomorrow morning at 4am! Bring it on...

2010-10-26T09:10:00.000-07:00

Southward Bound Once More

Yes, I’m off again.

But before I go on, first please let me apologise for my online absence. Now that I’m off to the back of beyond to resume my adventure in the name of science, I plan to write much more frequently.

The first time I went to Antarctica most of my friends and family were really excited for me. I think they shared in the nervous anticipation of the unknown. Each step I took on my adventure was thrilling.

Now though, a lot of them seem quite puzzled. Why do I feel the need to go back, again and again? Haven’t I seen what I need to see, had my adventure, had enough of the cold and the snow?

I must admit it feels different now than it did when I was planning my first trip. And my motivations have changed. Now I want to go so badly not to find out about another world, another way of life, but because I know I love that way of life and the freedom it gives me. Here's a poem I wrote last time I was south that might help explain what I'm talking about:

ANTARCTICA

To be here, to come here

This place with its view

Means so little to so many

But so much to so few

Who’ve been here, who’ve seen it

Who’ve felt it and lived it

Who’ve kept it inside them

And can’t live without it

Who know its uniqueness

Its whiteness, its bleakness

Who crave its togetherness

And love its remoteness

Who live with the secret

That others can’t know

That this place is special

More than rocks, ice and snow

A world in its own right

That floods all the senses

Such that nothing else matters

Outside of its fences

And each day I wake up

And feel it take hold

There’s beauty in isolation

And there’s warmth in the cold

And I know I’m in love

As each time I depart

All that I think of

Whilst we are apart

Is the day I’ll be back

On this floating ice shelf

Or this snowy mountain

And I smile to myself

Certainly not a work of literary genius but it does talk of that feeling that keeps drawing me back to Antarctica, the feeling that there's nowhere I would rather be in the world!

2009-12-26T10:33:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve: Mulled wine, mince pies and a spectacular view out across the bay...

Happy Christmas!

Launching the Rothera weather balloon on an icy Christmas Morning

2009-09-22T09:56:00.000-07:00

Fabulous Antarctic Videos

OK, so I know I haven't posted any Antarctic action lately (that' s because I'm currently based in Cambridge, UK and as far I'm concerned, if there's no snow, it's not worth writing about) but Kirk Watson, one of the team down at Rothera, has been making some
WONDERFUL VIDEOS OF ANTARCTIC WINTER LIFE

As for me, I'm off back down south in just a few weeks time so watch this space for more photos, stories and snowy science from the start of November...

2009-03-14T07:21:00.000-07:00

Travels

A few photos from my recent travels up the Antarctic Peninsula to Tierra del Fuego and into Patagonia...stories to follow...

2009-02-07T09:29:00.000-08:00

Out and About

Last Sunday afternoon, as the sun broke through the clouds at last, I clambered up Stork Ridge and looked down at the glacier below.

Monday night at Rothera's very own ski resort...

2008-12-16T07:42:00.000-08:00

Wildlife

And even wilder scenery...

From the window of the plane when I was lucky enough to venture further afield:

Happy Christmas and a very Merry New Year!

2008-12-07T21:48:00.000-08:00

A 'Dingle Day' at last!

When the sun finally comes along and lights up this place after days spent under a giant white blanket of cloud and snow, it feels like the curtain has been lifted on a world inconceivable only hours ago. Days like today are beyond description in English but in Antarctican we call them 'dingle days'. When the snow sparkles and each face of a mountain is glowing in a different shade. The sea shimmers and, around the base of icebergs, takes on an incredible turquoise colour that could never be mixed. When everywhere you look, you find yourself staring transfixed and unable to take it in. When the thin strands of high ice cloud appear as if they are trying to frame the view. When nothing quite looks real. When the scene in front of you is so breathtakingly beautiful that you can't think beyond the present moment.

I set off from the base, below, to marvel at the raw beauty that surrounds it...

A lonely penguin dwarfed by the icebergs that act as a safe haven for it to escape the lurking leopard seal.

A seal sunning itself on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

After a day out enjoying the stunning weather, including carving some turns on my board at the local ski resort - Vals, I prepared for a night spent weather watching. The recent bad weather has left us with a back logs of field parties to fly out so today 24 hour operations were called for. I'm duty met tonight and it suits me just fine as I can enjoy a few more shades of magic as the light slowly shifts and the clouds start to roll in. Soon the splendour will be hidden behind a veil once again so I'm happy to catch every moment.

I'll try and write a bit more about my job here soon.

2008-11-30T10:04:00.000-08:00

Underground, Overground...

Welcome to the one or two extra followers my blog seems to have aquired of late, hope you enjoy a glimpse of this slightly otherworldy corner of the earth.

After all those photos of the mindblowingly beautiful crevass just up the hill from Rothera, here's a photo of me slithering my way through said ice cavern:

Below you see me making the most of a sunny interval amidst what seemed like a neverending storm. The high winds that day were creating some excellent flying saucer like 'lenticular' clouds over the ridge behind the base. I skied out for a spot of wildlife watching around Rothera Point and bumped into (almost literally) a few cuddly Weddell seals and some Adelie penguins, waddling their way through life in what appears to be a charmingly oblivious fashion.

I'm currently featured on a women in science blog, have a look if you want to find out how I ended up here.

2008-11-11T07:56:00.000-08:00

Easy Come, Easy Go

My first voyage to Antarctica involved 10 weeks on board a ship, crossing the equator then on southwards via various little known islands and eventually bashing through ice nall the way to the ice cliffs of mainland Antarctica. This time, I left the UK on Wednesday afternoon and touched down on the Antarctic Peninsula in time for lunch on Friday.

The photo above shows the Dash 7, the British Antarctic Survey's 'passenger jet' that brings people in and out of Rothera Research Station from late October to early March. It lands on wheels on a runway kept clear of snow and can even make it further south to land on blue ice runways. This morning the Dash 7 left Rothera bound for Punta Arenas in southern Chile. Amongst it's 14 or so passengers and crew was Matt Balmer, who's just finished 2 and a half years working as an electronics engineers down here without once leaving. When the plane returns tomorrow morning, it will bring the Dutch crown Prince and Princess, on a weekend trip south as part of their world tour monitoring the effects of global climate change.

2008-11-03T17:06:00.000-08:00

Wow...

2008-10-29T06:44:00.000-07:00

Where am I?

On my way south again!

Punta Arenas is a small city on the southern tip of Chile, that's where I'm staying at the moment whilst I wait for the weather to fly across the Drake passage to Rothera Research Station on the Antarctic Peninsula. As you can see from the map, I'm not going as far south as I was last year at Halley. In the rest of Antarctica the peninsula is known as the 'banana belt' as it's actually not that cold at all! Summer temperatures rarely drop far below zero and even in winter (winter temperatures have risen by almost 6 degrees Celcius over the past 50 years or so) it's often warm enough to safely lick metal. Is this the real Antarctic? Who cares...it has mountains a plenty and I've packed my snowboard...bring it on!

2008-07-11T03:56:00.000-07:00

Pole to Pole

I've swapped penguins for polar bears this summer and am currently camping in the Arctic. I'm on an island called Spitsbergen, part of a group fo Norwegian islands called Svalbard, about 600 miles from the north pole. I'm a science leader for a group of budding young meteorologists on a BSES (British Schools Exploring Society) expedition.

You can see updates on the progress of the expedition over the coming month here, click on Svalbard summer '08.

Enjoy the summer!

2008-03-31T15:13:00.000-07:00

Something to listen out for...

For those of you who might be interested, fellow metbabe Dave Evans and I will be on radio 4 tomorrow (Tuesday) at 9.30 in the morning.

The programme is called Team Spirit and it's all about team dynamics.

Anyway, if you miss it you can listen again on the BBC website.

2008-03-25T05:20:00.000-07:00

Zebra crossing...

Possibly my favourite photo so far!

The lazy lions who kindly refrained from eating my tour guide as he jumped out of the truck right infront of them to rescue my sunglasses, fallen from my clumsy head. Cheers JoJo.

Pretty (and slightly scary) thunder cloud

Muchos giraffes

Above- Crazy Namibian rocks, Below- Crazy Namibian skies

Namibian Rock Art

Susie chimney head in Barcelona

Some building I quite liked

Me escaping a city, as usual

You may have noticed a change of scenery in some of these photos. Yes, I am now in the continent I call home and have met up with one or two friendly faces. Ieven made it out to the hills of Andorra for some gravity assisted snowboarding but I was far too excited to take any photos. After a few more days in Barcelona I´ll be off to Northern Norway to talk about ice and snow, then Austria to play with ice and snow, then finally home (I´ll be in Warkworth on the 13th April with photos of ice and snow a plenty). I´m thinking of meeting up in Newcastle/the Masons the last weekend of April and London in early May but I´ll keep you posted. Can´t wait to catch up over a pint!

2008-03-01T05:37:00.000-08:00

Namibia

A totally surreal, empty but amazingly beautiful country from what I've seen so far. In one week we've covered a lot of ground from swimming in the Orange River at the border to the adventure capital Swakopmund where I finally got to do some gravity assisted sandboarding.

Dead trees in the Namib desert. My god it was too hot for my poor Antarctic adapted body but it was stunning.

Below: Looking back up at the best dune running slope ever and all the people about to follow in my footprints...

Watching sunrise up Dune 45 in the Namib desert, a well deserved rest after a hard climb (well worth it for the run down)

Namibia's national tree: the quiver tree

Just before sunset at Fish River Canyon, the oldest canyon in the world and it certainly felt like the hottest too (although apparently it's 10 degrees hotter at the bottom!)

2008-02-23T00:35:00.000-08:00

Excuses...

I haven't updated my blog for ages. That's because I've been ...

Watching buffalos and warthogs drinking at a waterhole,

chilling on a beach on the deserted Wild coast,

trying not to get eaten by an Elephant,

Canoeing down a stunning gorge,

Resting my weary backside after pony trekking to a remote village in Lesotho and...

looking back over the Drakensburg mountains from half way up the Sani pass that crosses the border to Lesotho.

I've also been playing with cute Basotho kids that loved posing for photos,

launching myself down a waterfall zipline course,

Riding an elephant

Making mud bricks and smearing them with cow dung,

And kite surfing...look, I'm actually standing up (it's harder than it looks).

enough excuses.

Off to Namibia tomorrow so will try and update in a couple of weeks time. After Namibia, Barcelona...see you soon!

2008-01-31T03:24:00.000-08:00

On holiday

Just a few quick snaps to give an idea of the things I'm up to. Went Paragliding over Cape Town yesterday. The real world continues to surprise and delight me (apart from the traffic jams!).

Wine (and cheese tasting). I went round the cheese tasting 3 times.

Sunset from the Lion's Head next to Table mountain. This is where I went paragliding too.

Never frozen cheese tastes oh so good.

A lovely refreshing break from the 43 degree heat that I could never even have imagined a month or two ago.

2008-01-20T10:58:00.000-08:00

The joys of civilisation...

Here are a few picture from my first couple of days enjoying the pleasures of the real world. Words to come!

Crunchy fresh brocolli....oh so good

This cocktail actually contains fruit!

Haven't seen these in a long time but here I am demonstrating to my hardy Antarctic colleagues how to address a leaf

Been a while since I stood on one of these (a rock that is, and a mountain, for that matter)

The feel of grass, and we swam in the sea behind!

Salad=happy me

Exploring the paradise like botanical gardens. It was hot and green and everything. A bit too much excitement for one day!

2008-01-17T08:10:00.000-08:00

It's getting hot out here...

It's strange feeling your hair blow in the wind after more than a year of hats and hoods. Every time I go outside I expect the cold to hit me but it doesn't. Even the wind feels hot and the sun at last is hot again!

Haven't taken a lot of photos lately, so here are a few from my last weeks at Halley that I never got round to publishing:

Fillin the melt tank on a windy day. You have to dig more snow to find the hole than you put down it!

Kirsty and Dave saying their final goodbyes to Milos, the system of weather instruments we've been using all year which we took down at the start of January in preparation for the move to Halley 6.

Pretty clouds

Classic weather balloon pose on a Sunday day, I'd been meaning to get this photo all year!

2008-01-09T12:37:00.000-08:00

The little things you notice...

As I set sail from home without a care in the world, I had no clue what some of the little luxuries on board ship would mean to me after a year in Antarctic. Here are just a few of the things that I've come to appreciate:

Cheese that's never been frozen
Different types of cheese
Garlic cream cheese especially....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Fresh milk (it's UHT but still 1000 times better than the powdered stuff)
Flora Magarine
Not having to turn the shower off in between washes
Decent sized mugs
Plently of tomato ketchup and diet coke
Soundproof walls
Fresh fruit (obviously)
Bottled beer, including ales and different lagers
Just needing a jumper to go outside

There are, of course, things which I miss about Halley life already:

Everything being free (except beer)
Never having to peel vegetables (they all came in tins!)
Most of all...my friends (summer folk) and family (winterers)

2008-01-07T07:23:00.000-08:00

Homeward bound at last!

The voyage north has begun. I left Halley on the 5th of Jan and have spent the past few days crashing and bashing through ice, back on board the big red taxi (aka RRS Ernest Shackleton) that brought me to the frozen land in the first place.

I hope you're not thinking " hooray, no more boring white pictures, perhaps we'll see people, colours and non frozen cheese products lining these pages from now on", alas you shall have to wait a little longer. Although nearly out of the ice, I have a 2 week voyage ahead of me, then three months of frollicking in foreign lands before I set foot back on British soil.

It is a gorgeous trip throught the sea ice, a fitting way indeed to end a stunning year in the ice. Us avid wildlife watchers onboard have seen penguins, seals and whales but ofcourse, I failed to capture them on film. Enjoy the photos, although it's hard to capture the big and small of it all...

The end of a big berg teeters on the point of collapse. Noone can resist getting up close for a good look!

Russian cargo ship the Amderma follows the Shack's tracks out of the ice. Strange to have company in such a lonely land.

Headed north - the sea ice gets thin but the ice bergs get bigger (go big or go home icebergs!)

The path opened up as we reverst to take another bash at a tricky patch

Can you spot the stripey annual layers of snow and ice on the berg...cool, eh!

Shack shadow on the sea ice

Kissing dinosaur icebergs...or is it just me who see's that? A gorgeous evening as the sun puts its hat on at last and lights up the pressure ridges as far as the eye can see.

2008-01-04T11:46:00.000-08:00

Posing with the Penguins

Had to be done...enough said.

It wasn't just me trying to blend in, although it has to be said that my thermos flask had a rather better disguise!

2007-12-31T12:18:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

I miss you and I hope you have a great night.

2007-12-28T08:58:00.000-08:00

Boxing Day Outing

In the run up to Chritsmas and even on Christmas day itself it was all hands on deck to unload all the cargo (food, fuel and supplies) to keep the base running for the next year. When the rush finally subsided I sneaked away to the coast to visit the big red Santa ship which had also served as my taxi south the previuos year.

Here she is, moored up against the sea ice about a kilometre from the ice cliffs that mark the edge of the ice shelf I live on. Although the sea ice is 3m thick and thought to be capable of supporting weights of at least 6 tonnes the scramble nets hang down the sides incase the ice starts to break out with people working on it.

In the morning just before I arrived ship side they nearly had to make a swift departure as a large ice floe loomed ominously near to the hull. This one is nothing in comparison but still pretty: above you can see it floating towards the bow and below you can see that most of it lurks beneath the waves.

Looking at it from a distance it looks almost as if there are oil slicks all around. In face the calm, shiny patches are not pollution but areas of 'grease ice' where the sea surface is just beginning to freeze. It goes through several stagges as ice crystals starts to cover the surface on swirling patches which grow eventually into 'pancake ice'. The changes are visible from minute to minute.

Here I am about to head out for a boxing day stroll along the foot of the ice cliffs.

By the way, some parts of Christmas are just the same down here. For instance the ship arrived bearing bucket loads of maltesers so I have been stuffing my face with chocolate just like I would do back home at this time of year.

Also, we had a very white Christmas with beautiful giant flakes of snow.

2007-12-25T18:17:00.000-08:00

2007-12-20T15:09:00.000-08:00

Ship's here at last...more photos soon

2007-12-02T05:14:00.000-08:00

Up up and away!!!

In spite of the recent invasions of outsiders it only felt like winter had truly come to an end at Halley when the first member of the winter team, field assistant Sune, set off for pastures new at the end of November.

I was overjoyed when I was asked to go with him, as co-pilot for the return flight. Not only did it mean I would be flying in a ski plane, exciting enough in itself, but the journey included visits to other Antarctic stations and, best of all, my first views of mountains and rocks and generally large amounts of colours other than white in a long long while.

Here's a fleeting glimpse, soon to be updated with a bit more explanation and some more pretty pics (sorry about the shocking lack of posting of late, the 12 hour shifts of summer eat into time for doing things other than work!)

First stop Neumayer, Halley's neighbouring German research station. The whole base is underground. Below you can see the very kind base commander giving me a guided tour, more photos to follow.

Below, our first landing in the mountains. First you trail the skis to check for crevasses and take off again. Then you land exactly on the tracks. Looking back, the tracks come from nowhere and then disappear again. Landing here gave me one of the most wonderful feelings of true isolation I've ever experienced.

Ok, so I got a bit excited about the mountains...

We landed here and slept overnight in the plane. Above you can see a depot of food and fuel to resupply Sune and the geologist he'll be guiding early in the new year.

Wow.

South African Sanae Station from the air. We could see you waving but I' m not sure whether you could see us waving back!

Many thanks to staff at Neumayer and Troll stations for your wonderful hospitality.

2007-11-18T07:55:00.001-08:00

Big Friendly Giants

Most of the Halley vehicle fleet is now back in action after its long winter slumber. It means we can do lots more outdoor stuff and we get to ride around and have fun, like me here attaching cables to the building from the basket of a crane.

Photo by Vicky Auld, Halley Base Commander.

2007-11-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

New Arrivals

Fresh faces, fruit, veg, salad and mail have arrived at last

Thank you so much for the letters, postcards and packages.

I was cooking yesterday and the smell of a fresh cucumber overwhelmed me. Some of my fellow winterers hadn't seen a banana for 2 years so that caused quite a stir. Tonight for dinner we had boiled potatoes, carrots and leeks, all done 'al dente' so we could apprieciate that crisp fresh feel.
Even more exciting, yesterday I had salad for lunch: crunchly lettuce and juicy tomatoes. Mmmmmm.

2007-10-28T18:27:00.000-07:00

Heat Wave!

What a difference a day makes...

Last Tuesday morning it was -36 degrees, the kind of temperature I've acclimatised to over the winter. I've learnt (sometimes the hard way) not to do certain things - like touch metal with bare skin for example!

But how things can change, and fast... By Wednesday afternoon it was a scorching -3! Thats 33 degrees change in as many hours.

It didn't take long for a group to gather outside: celebrating in shorts and T-shirts, running around wildly touching things with gloveless hands -ok, maybe that was just me- and squishing snowballs to find, amazingly, that they stick together (usually the snow is too dry and powdery).
All outside doors were propped wide open to usher in that summer feeling.

Of course, it didn't last. It's back to -28 as I write. It did give us a taste of what's to come in the sunny months ahead where our noses will be released from their balaclavas to enjoy that Antarctic air.

2007-10-15T05:44:00.001-07:00

Penguin Paradise

Since my last visit, the chicks have grown into chubby little balls of fluff scurrying about on their own, falling over, rolling in the snow, and lapping up the attention of every adult penguin in sight.

Feed me!

My field guide taught me that you can tell what a penguin's been eating by the colour of its poo. Red for krill, white for fish and green if its hungry (bile). So it looks like the doting parent above has recently enjoyed a krill feast.

Oi, what you looking at??!

One comes to say hello. They seem to be just as interested in us as we are in them. In fact, one day when we were abseiling down an ice cliff near the colony a long line of curious penguins could be seen extending all the way towards us!

My new feathered friends

Penguins galore!

Inside a crevass at the edge of the ice shelf

Exploring on the sea ice.

All in all, a fairly extraordinary holiday.

Cheers to Dean, who took half these photos.

2007-10-03T06:24:00.000-07:00

Don't forget the sunscreen...

I'm off on my holidays on Friday, hooray! Alongside my thermals, woolly hat and 5 season sleeping bag, I'll be packing my sunnies and plenty of factor 50. Sounds like a strange combination? Not in during the Antarctic ozone hole season...

Before I give anything away, why not test your ozone hole knowledge -

True or False:

1. The ozone hole is open all year round

2. Ozone absorbs harmful UV radiation from the sun

3. The ozone hole is the same everywhere on earth

4. The ozone hole was discovered here at Halley

5. One of the discoverers earned a Blue Peter badge for his efforts

6. The ozone hole is caused by global warming

7. The ozone hole will probably get better

8. The ozone hole affects everyone

9. Penguins get sucked into space through the ozone hole

10. It is possible to get sun burnt up your nose

So how did you do?

Answers:

1. False. It opens up every southern spring, towards the end August after the sun has returned to the high latitudes. It peaks in October then fades away during late November or early December. There is good reason for this timing. Ozone destruction requires 3 things:

REALLY COLD + CHLORINE (from CFCs) + SUN = DEATH TO OZONE

It has to be really cold because the chemical reactions that destroy ozone take place on ice clouds high up in the atmosphere that only form in temperatures below - 75 deg C. The ozone destroying reactions involve chlorine and also require sunlight to start them off. So ozone destruction starts as soon as the sun returns to the Antarctic in August (at Halley) and carries on until sometime in October it gets too warm for the ice clouds to form. The hole doesn't disappear immediately but instead hangs around until ozone from other regions of the world start to fill in the gap at the start of the southern summer.

2. True. The ozone layer protects us from some of the sun's most harmful radiation by absorbing it before it reaches us. The ozone hole is a bit of a problem for those of us underneath it allows more than double the normal amount of UV radiation to reach us. UV radiation is pretty nasty stuff, causing sunburn, eye damage and skin cancer. That's why I have to smother myself in sunscreen till I look like a yeti when I'm out and about.

3.False. Here's a satellite picture of the ozone hole a week ago, approaching its peak (the blacks, purples and darker blues show areas of serious ozone depletion). It stretches over most of Antarctica and sometimes as far as the tip of South America. Antarctica is ideal territory for ozone holes as it's cold and isolated. During winter and spring winds high up in the atmosphere circle around Antarctica cutting it off from the rest of the world and stopping any high ozone air from filling the hole. There is a much weaker and less well defined hole over the Arctic during their spring, but the Arctic is neither as cold nor as isolated so mostly it's a southern hemisphere thing.
4. True indeed, back in 1985.

5. True! Jon Shanklin, still in charge of ozone measurements at Halley and hence my boss is the proud owner of a well deserved Blue Peter Badge.

6. False. The cause of the ozone hole is completely separate from climate change or global warming. CFCs that used to be in refrigerators and aerosols are thought to be the biggest culprits.

7. True. But it's gonna take a while. Latest predictions are that it won't have recovered fully until at least 2070. Even though the release of CFCs has slowed down dramatically following the Montreal Protocol, they hang around in the atmosphere for a long time. CFCs are not very reactive (ironically, that's why no one thought they could do any harm at first) which means they're tough to get rid of, so we just have to be patient.

8. True. Each year in December, ozone from the rest of the world starts to fill the hole. At the minute, ozone is being destroyed much faster than new ozone is being made, so the amount of ozone everywhere on the planet is down by at least 10-15%. Doesn't sound like that much but it means a big increase in the risk of skin cancer pretty much everywhere. The ozone layer also plays an important role in global climate and the full implications of the hole are not yet fully understood.

9. ? A proper scientist would probably say something like "contrary to popular belief, penguins are not sucked out into space through the ozone hole," but how do they know? Science has taught me that when penguins are sucked into space they explode (because of the vacuum). So who's to say that all this dark matter cosmologists have been looking for is not made up of fragments of exploded penguin. Sounds at least as feasible as the average scientific theory to me

10. True. Here in Antarctica (or anywhere else where it's snowy) the sun is reflected back up at you from the snow surface. That means you get almost twice as much sun as normal = sunburn in some very strange places like up your nose and the roof of your mouth (especially if you visit the penguins and you can't stop mouthing the words 'they're so cute').

Scores:
8-10 You may even be in with a chance of qualifying for your very own blue peter badge one day.
4-7 Nice try but no cigar
0-3 You are in danger of being sucked out of the ozone hole along with the penguins.

One more thing... I've started writing for a blog on the website of a brand new American TV show called 'WIRED Science'.
I'll be writing lots more about Antarctic science so it's well worth a look.

2007-09-26T07:35:00.000-07:00

Base Life

In the spring we all get to go on holiday: 10 days out camping and exploring. Ice climbing, abseiling, delving deep into crevasses, penguin watching or just sitting in a tent drinking tea and trying not to freeze in a storm. The first trip has now set off and is enjoying some gorgeous weather albeit in temperature of -35.

In the meantime, life on base carried on as normal:

Richard's 30th made me feel somewhat at home with a London party. See how many of the costumes you can guess.

(Answers: Mark as Elephant and Castle, Jules as Barking (barking mad by the look of it), Richard, birthday boy, as Tower Hill, Neil as Piccadilly Circus, Brian as Greenford, Andy as Paddington, Dean as Shepherd's Bush, Kirsty as Caledonian, Me as St James' Park and Jim as Blackfriars)

Jules stuggles through the deep powder on his crutches (he broke his leg kite-skiing).

Neil posing as Atlas at his Toga party this Saturday.

2007-09-23T07:35:00.000-07:00

Global Warming?

No, I'm not really suggesting that global warming is a myth. In fact, the Antarctic Peninsula, where the other British base, Rothera, is situated, is the fastest warming place on the planet: 3 degrees over the past 50 years. That's why us hardcore Antarctic heroes at Halley call it the Rothera Riviera. Over there, ice shelves* that have been stable for thousands of years are breaking up, clearing the path for glaciers to flow into the sea. Warmer temperatures mean more melting on the surface of glaciers and this water flows through cracks to the base of the glacier where it acts as a lubricant, speeding up the flow. The sea is warming up too, melting the ice where it meets the sea and reducing sea ice. Soon there will be palm trees and everything. Book your winter-sun get-away to the Peninsula before it's too late!

*Ice shelves, like the one I live on, are massive sheets of thick, floating ice that's still attached to the land. In some places they act like giant plugs, preventing huge glaciers and ice streams from flowing out into the sea. Until global warming causes them to break up that is... maybe that houseboat isn't such a bad idea after all.

Anyway, here at Halley it's still pretty chilly. If you're interested in just how cold it's been this year, take a look at this temperature graph from the day I arrived here:
(you'll have to click on it to get a proper look)

You can see that I had a nice gentle introduction to this less than hospitable continent with temperatures at the start of the year not far below zero (I think there was one day when it was colder back home!). However, for the past six months or so -30 has been pretty normal and -40 has been a regular visitor. So far this is one of the 5 coldest of the past 50 years

I'm actually quite glad it's cold here this year. The colder it is, the less it snows. That means less digging to find stuff that was on the surface a few months back (and theres enough of that already, believe me)! Cold air holds less moisture which means less precipitation . That explains why Antarctica, a place which holds 90% of the world's fresh water, is technically a desert: it's too cold to snow much! The only reason we've got so much of the stuff is because it's too cold for it to melt either, so it builds up year after year.

2007-09-12T09:09:00.000-07:00

The Rise and Fall of the Blimp

Until recently, blimp flights had been going full steam ahead at Halley. We even went out one Saturday night as surface level ozone values plummeted. Above you can see Dean getting ready for launch and below I'm manning the winch.

Easy does it. I let out the lines at a nice steady speed, with only the occasional moment of confusion (the motor we use to power the winch was designed for drilling ice cores so up is down and down is up). Little did I know that it would be the final flight for this beloved blimp. May she rest in peace (or should I say pieces).

Three days later, 48 hours into a relentless spring blizzard, I battled my way towards the weather haven that houses the blimp only to find it making a bid for freedom. The giant tent is shaped like an aircraft hangar and by the time I found it the windward door had blown open creating a giant wind sock. Both sides were lifting several feet into the air, struggling to free themselves from their guy lines. It was a fairly awesome sight; for a moment I gazed on somewhat clueless as to how we were going to tame the savage beast.

Thankfully, base members came running out left, right and centre in response to my distress call. Fourth year winterer (as close to native as they come) Andy came to the rescue, rigging up an elaborate system of pulleys and anchors that eventually brought the situation under control. It took ten of us wrestling in white out conditions for over an hour but eventually the weather haven was saved.

Sadly the same cannot be said for the blimp. It was torn to shreads by the relentless thrashing of the tent in the wind. Once the storm had calmed and we realised the poor blimp was beyond repair, Kirsty and I decided to make the best of a bad situation (luckily we have a replacement so the science can keep going).

Here you can see us surveying the damage:

Later that evening we invited the base out to say farewell and enjoy a drink in the belly of the blimp:

2007-09-10T05:07:00.000-07:00

Our Neighbours

On Sunday I saw another living being other than the 18 people on base. Actually I saw lots of them. And they were beautiful. And adorable. And breathtaking. And incredible.

It made me very happy:

I nearly cried when I saw my first chick!

Where the ice shelf we live on meets the sea ice that stretches out as far as the eye can see tower 30m high jagged ice cliffs (we didn't have to abseil it as there was a ramp further along).

Dinner time:

This made me very sad. I'd seen March of the penguins and I knew that not all of the chicks survive but the 5 or 6 dead babies littered around the edge of the huddle still brought a tear to my eye. Having experienced the conditions that our neighbours are exposed to, and without shelter, I'm amazed so many of them get through it!

The guard penguins around the edge of the colony keep a careful eye on us intruders.

Huddling together for warmth

2007-09-05T05:34:00.000-07:00

A guided tour...

Of other peoples' blogs!

To find out all about what happened at Halley in the action packed month of August and to see some fabulously cute Emperor penguins (which I shall hopefully be visiting soon) follow the link to Ant's blog.

If you're bored of flat white scenery and would like to have a gander at the stunning mountains of the Antarctic Peninsula, go to Rob's blog and follow the link to his website. There you'll find some mind-blowing photos from his latest climbing/gravity-assisted skiing trip.

As for me, don't worry, I won't be slacking like this for much longer. Have been busy lately flying the blimp (including under the stars and aurora on Sunday night), watching some really bright and active aurora on Saturday, giving a science talk to the base (complete with volunteers and demos in good old explainer style) and thrashing Rothera (the British base on the peninsula) at darts.

Coming up in the near future... more blimp action, penguin trips and better blog posts!

2007-08-28T03:06:00.000-07:00

Halley's 'Nott a Hill in sight' Carnival

Last night the infamous Halley Samba band 'drumline' joined in with the festivities going on at the other side of the world in Notting Hill Carnival.

Blimp Bliss

A fabulous sky on the morn of the first blimp flight of the season. Volunteers to help were a plenty as everyone wanted to get out and gaze at the dream like scene. The photo underneath shows me being distracted by the gorgeous pink wisps of cirrostratus (met speak for high ice cloud) and the patches of ice fog that made buildings in the distance look like they were floating on air. It was also the only time I have seen patchy fog in front of the windows so that the light streaks out from them like rays shining down through the clouds from the heavens.

Thanks Dave for being both diligent and skillful as always when it comes to working the Lens.

2007-08-25T07:48:00.000-07:00

Rocky Halley Picture Show

Here is the evidence that we've been away from society for too long. mY only excuse being that when you haven't been more than a mile away from your bed for 6 months, you have to do something to liven things up.

Lets do the Time Warp again...

Antarctic Pub Crawl

Welcome to my world: It's Saturday night and you're dressed up ready for a night out on the town. Where shall we go, you wonder briefly, then you remember there is only one pub at Halley, the same pub you've been to every Saturday for the last nine months.

Not anymore...

Last weekend and in honour of Ant's 30th birthday we took a tour of the finest venues the Brunt Ice Shelf has to offer.

Venues:

Satellite Dome,
Melt tank shaft,
CASLab (atmospheric chemistry lab turned music venue),
Simpson platform (meterology and ozone lab turned Biker bar),
Weather haven tent (turned techno disco)
Piggott platform (upper atmospheric science lab turned chillout lounge)
The grand finale: a secret ice cave.

I discovered the perils of filming in the Antarctic as I tried to remove this frozen camera from my face. No lasting scars, I'll have to try harder next time.

The Piggott chill out lounge

Birthday boy welcomes the guests to the secret ice cavern

2007-08-17T16:29:00.000-07:00

Spring skies, spring science

At the moment the sun rises at about the time of the daily weather balloon launch (11am). Shame it won't last long; the sunrise gets earlier by twenty minutes every day at the moment!

Here we are putting up a giant tent that will be used to inflate and store a 'blimp' (helium airship). Part of spring science campaign here at Halley involves flying the Blimp with ozone and meteorological sensors attached through the lower atmosphere to find out all about mysterious spring time 'ozone depletion events' that could have important consequences for climate change, at least at a regional scale. Here's a quick guide:

What is an Ozone Depletion Event?

A short-term reduction in the amount of ozone gas in the air near the ground.

Why are Ozone Depletion events important?

Ozone gas absorbs the sun’s radiation so surface level ozone has an influence on how much heat is reflected back out to space and how much is trapped causing warming. We are fairly sure that ozone depletion events have an impact on regional climate but as the extent of the events is not yet known, the wider impacts are not fully understood (the blimp work should help with this).

The changing climate in the polar regions will likely have an effect on how often these events occur, which in turn will affect the climate . Climate change science is full of feedbacks like this one, which is one of the main reasons it's so complex and hard to predict.

How does the ozone depletion take place?

There is very strong evidence that the ozone depletion occurs when the air comes into contact with newly forming sea ice. Satellites measurements have been used to trace the trajectories of ozone depleted air and confirm that it has passed over new sea-ice zones. Chemical reactions take place between the ozone in the air and naturally occuring molecules on the surface of the new sea ice that destroy the ozone. Sea ice formation takes place throughout winter and spring, however ozone depletion events occur predominantly in spring, as sunlight is an essential ingredient of the ozone destroying reactions.

What does the Blimp do?

We attach an ozone sensor and a set of meteorological sensors (wind, temperature, pressure and humidity) underneath the blimp and slowly raise it up to around 400m. This provides a profile of the conditions and ozone concentrations throughout the near surface air, which can help determine how far up the ozone depleted air stretches and how the level of ozone varies with height and meteorological conditions. The more we find out about what is going on within the ODE, the more we will understand about its origins and likely impacts.

The afternoon we put up the blimp tent it was freezing (-42 or so, see mine and Alex's faces below to prove it) but gorgeous with glowing skies and patches of lingering mist.

Moonrise over the weather platform, named the Simpson platform after the meteorologist on Captain Scott's South Pole expedition.

2007-08-13T08:52:00.000-07:00

Ready for Action

'Action Heros' was the theme for Kirsty's 23rd bithday party. A whole 3 weeks since the last fancy dress, people were well up for it and I think the theme kind of fitted with the mood on base at the moment. There's loads of science going on (more on that coming) and seemingly thousands of outdoor jobs built up during the darkness. The light means everyone's up for the challenge; every day of decent weather we get we have to be ready for action...

Lara 'birthday girl' Croft

Jules broke his ankle out kite skiing a couple of weeks ago, so Richard and Dean got plastered up to keep him company. Richard came as a stunt man, Dean as a slightly clumsy James Bond whilst Jules was, in his own words, "the ugly one from the good, the bad and the ugly."

Me as a Mighty Morphin Power Ranger. The gloves and skidoo helmet made eating dinner interesting. Later in the night I morphed into a giant robot Rhino but sadly, no photos.

2007-08-11T07:02:00.000-07:00

Here comes the sun...

Sune sees the light

The flag nearly blows away, as youngest base member Jimbo tries to put it up upside down!

I thought the sun was supposed to be hot??! The first day of spring and it was -43 degrees C.

This was the day before sun up. My eyes were pinned to the horizon desperate to catch that very first glimpse. Despite the sun itself being a no show, the overall spectacle wasn't so bad. The big rod you can see is part of the air sampling equipment we use every week to collect flasks of air that tell the world how levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are changing. On days like this I feel especially privileged to be down here doing global science and enjoying all the perks that come with it.

Beach volleyball in the...er...sun?

Lastly, just a few pretty pictures of Kirsty and I just after we came in from measuring the snow snakes that record snow accumulation and raising some cables that had been buried after the recent blizzards. For more about the major Halley activity of stopping everything disappearing beneath white powdery stuff, see Dean's blog.

What you looking at?

2007-08-05T04:38:00.000-07:00

Science Never Sleeps

It's Sunday morning. I'm duty weather girl.

The majority of base members might be enjoying a lie in, but science never sleeps.

There are three of us in the Halley met team and we take turns to work the weekend shifts.

As I make my way to work at nine, there's already a glow over the misty horizon.

There's just one week to go until sun up.

After entering my 9am weather observation into the computer which sends it straight to the UK met office, I take my place in the Halley met office.

It looks so similar to any old office back home, if I wasn't going outside every hour I could easily forget I was 12000 miles away.

The friendly office penguin sits over my desk, alongside photos of green, sunny, hilly places to help me remember that it's not flat and white everywhere.

At about half ten get dressed up again and make for BART, a shipping container on stilts, to fill the daily weather balloon with helium gas ready for launch.

When it's full, the balloon's about the same size as me (height not width, even Ant's amazing food hasn't done me that much damage, not yet at least!). I tie a radiosonde onto the neck of the balloon before releasing it. That's a little plastic box carrying temperature, pressure and humidity sensors and a GPS antenna (you can work out wind speed and direction if you know how the positions changes with height), which hangs on a long string beneath the balloon and transmits data back our receivers every second.

The balloon can travel up to 25km and expand to the size of a double decker bus before bursting!

On my way back to the office after lunch the light was as bright as a bedside lamp with a hangover. The morning mist had cleared and the daylight totally caught me by surprise. The past few weeks went something like this: it was dark all the time, then a few days of blizzard, then suddenly the skies cleared and we got days back again! I mean, I still had to use night mode on my camera to take this photo, the light only lasts a couple of hours and it's probably still dark enough to turn street lights on back home, but after three months it comes as a welcome change, that's for sure.

2007-07-30T09:54:00.000-07:00

Look at me, colour coordinated to match the sky!

Just a quick note:

Here's the answer to the most common question I am being asked at the moment...
when am I coming back?

I'll be leaving Antarctica in Jan 2008 and sailing to Cape Town. From there I plan to travel for a couple of months in Africa, then possibly catch the end of the snowboarding season in the Alps before heading back to Britain sometime in April. That's the plan at the moment (it'll probably change but I'll let you know).

The almost sun...

With just two weeks to go until sun up, we've all got rainbow twilight running through our veins!

Every month we loosen the stays on the masts we use for radio communications and science to compensate for the snow accumulation. This time it was a great excuse to admire one of the best almost sunrises so far.

High on light, Dave overdoes the kiting and stops for a quick nap between practicing his rodeo flips and attempting to break the world land speed record.

My kite, on the other hand, was not behaving so nicely but at least that left me plenty of time to take photos!

2007-07-29T06:44:00.000-07:00

The King is in the Building

Mark chose to rock the night away for his birthday as an army of elvis impersonators invaded the base for one night only. The tribute band, made up of The King himself along with guitarist burger king elvis, drummer dying on the toilet elvis and bassist early days elvis made us all proud of the obcenely high quiffs we were sporting. Music video to come...

2007-07-15T04:22:00.000-07:00

Girls Night Out

The colours change by the minute, but the light lingers over the horizon all day long, like a neverending sunset, with the stars shining above it.

Kirsty and I get ready to escape from the men for one blissful night.

All the usual ingredients of a girls night - sweets, chocolate, baileys, cosmo, nutella - only the location was unusual. To be on our own, we had to stay in a shipping container that took several hours to warm up to around freezing.

My first attempt at night writing, I think I need a little more practise.

If only I really was Penny Crayon...

2007-06-29T13:14:00.000-07:00

Open Wide

We all went to the dentists this week. As if it wasn't bad enough that everyone had their teeth seen to by a doctor with 3 days dental training and an over eager grin, the doctor got by far the worst deal. He let us all loose on his dentures as doc school gave way to dentist school for one week only. Here you can see Jimbo, the carpenter scraping away tartar like a pro.

2007-06-25T07:18:00.000-07:00

Mid Winter

Mid Winter marks the half way point in the long dark night that is the Antarctic winter. Scott and Shackleton celebrated it, and we keep the tradition alive...

Midwinters day was special.

It started with beakfast in bed: tea and a veggie sausage sandwich delivered by the base commander.

Then a late mid morning ski, followed by the customary naked run around the building we live in. Next, I wrapped the present I'd been making for the carpenter, put it under the tree (yes, a Christmas tree in June) and put on my posh frock ready for...

Mid Winter Meal 21st June 2007

Canapes

Chilled glass of Champagne

Thyme peppered beef fillet on a mini rosemary Yorkshire with horseradish cream
Pear ratatouille on a tomatoe & basil bruchetta
Seared salmon nicoise
Tarragon & mushroom baked cream tartlets

Amuse Bouche

Honey roasted butternut squash shot with panfried porcini mushrooms

Prestige Menu

Cappuccino of white beans with charred smoked bacon

Duo of trout & mjonkfish fillets with bearnaise emulsion & an asparagus, green bean & shallot salad (without the fish for veggies like me)

Marinated barbecue noisetes of lamb, canon of beef on a bed of onion puree served with griddled vegetables, fondant potatoes & a raspberry balsamic port jus

or
Risotto verde with olive oil pesto & parmesan crisps

Quenelle of melon sorbet

Caramelised compote of pineapple with coconut tuile biscuit

Strawberry tart tatin

Selection of the finest "frozen" cheeses

Fresh filter coffee and chocolates

Ant hard at work preparing a feast fit for royalty despite no food deliveries since the start of the year. Incredible.

The midwinter presents, revealed at last. For the last weeks and months, we've all been secretly slaving away in the workshops, and trying to conceal our creations from the eventual recipient (not so easy when, your making for the carpenter). It was great to finally see what everyone had been working on, and the results were really impressive. They included a working steam engine, an antarctic shaped cheeseboard, candlesticks, a chess board, an antarctica picture frame, a huge knitted blanket, sculptures, paintings, poems and puzzles. Best of all was my present from fellow metbabe Kirsty, a beautifully presented kit for the construction fo a full scale brass model of Halley, perfect to the finest detail (I'll put pictures up when I've built it!).

The presents under the tree. Christmas decortations in june feels surprisingly normal amidst the darkness and the snow.

Here you can see the box and some of the pieces for my Halley model, and behind it, the zoetrope (a kind of animation toy) that I built for Jimbo.

The Mid Winter holidays are the only time of the year when everyone on base gets time off work together. We had a packed program of events including...

A Biathalon (I won the women's category, somewhat helped by being the only woman taking part). We don't have guns on base so instead of skiing and shooting, we did skiing and throwing snowballs at cans.

A murder mystery

Crazy golf

and carol singing.

We wish you a merry midwinter,
we wish you a merry midwinter,
we wish you a merry midwinter and a happy new sun

Even with the sun at it's lowest point below the horizon at thsi time of year , it's not all darkness and gloom.This photo was taken just a couple of days after midwinter as the horizon glowed with every colour of the rainbow to remind us the sun was on it's way back.

Thanks to Dave and Tom for more great photos.

2007-06-17T19:03:00.000-07:00

Merry Midwinter!

Lots has been going on lately, in the run up to this week's midwinter festivities. The week kicked off on Friday night with an office party on the Simpson platform (the building where I work). There was Christmas music, merriment and games a plenty. I'll write a lot more at the end of the week, after I've finished frantically touching up my midwinter present, writing for the midwinter magazine, and forcing festivity upon all those that cross my path.

The Base Commander Turns 50

Pete, our Base Commander, turned 50 a week ago. He had an explorers themed party and the met team of myself, Kirsty, Dave and Tom got roped up together for the night.

Staying roped up all evening meant doing everything together. Here we all are helping Kirsty with the washing up, and below, Dave waits in the corridor whilst me and Kirsty are in the loo.

2007-06-09T04:04:00.000-07:00

It's dark outside

Me, Deano, Sune Jimbo and Tom (taking the photo) putting skidoos to sleep for the winter months. They're kept on a sledge to stop them getting buried and wrapped up under tarpaulins to stop them filling up with snow.

Our morning hour of painfully bright light 20cm form our faces, to 'reset our body clocks in the absence of natural light'. Thankfully it's only for two weeks at a time, in the name of medical research.

2007-05-27T10:10:00.001-07:00

Bad Hair Day

The fact that it's almost summer time back home somehow makes the dark and exteme cold of the Antarctic winter feel all the more imposing. Still, there has to be something good to be said about temperatures further below zero than they'll ever get above it in Britain (global warming included). And this is it... in minus 40 and below all you have to do is go outside, dip your hair in a bucket of warm water, tip your head upside down, hold it there for 20 seconds, then stand up and hey presto, you've got a hairdo that would take a several tubs of wax and hours in front of the mirror to create back home. Hmmm. Maybe that's clutching at straws, but it was fun anyway.

2007-05-24T05:41:00.001-07:00

The Light Fantastic

Last night's aurora extravaganza. The whole sky lit up and rippled with colour. I just lay on my back on the snow and laughed out loud.

Thanks to Tom for these first three photos.

Fireworks night came early this year. What with Christmas celebrations planned form June, we thought why not celebrate Guy Fawkes on the ninth of May. Sune, our field assistant, showed us how to set off the flares, should we ever need to signal for help out in the field. A great birthday treat!

Thanks to Richard for this lovely picture. I has the telescope pointed at Jupiter. You could see three moons, and just about make out the red spot. Then, as you stepped back from the telescope to let someone else have a look, you could turn and marvel at the sparkling AUrora over the southern horizon. This is early evening last night. Little did we know what these little lights would grow into (the top two photos)!

2007-05-18T07:54:00.000-07:00

E.R.? Holby City? No, it's Halley Bay

Yesterday I stuck a needle into someones vain, and injected them! I was very scared (not as scared as them) but they only nearly fainted afterwards, so it all turned out ok. It's not that hard, this medicine lark! 5 years at medical school, nah, I feel my training with 5 series of scrubs and ER has prepared me well. Here's me trying not to kill ALex, under the watchful eye of Richard, the Doc. Cheers to Pete (Base Commander) for the photo.

2007-05-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

Cheesey Birthday, mmmm

My cheese-tastic Birthday cake and card (thanks to Richard and Dean)

I had a cheese and wine night to celebrate with the slightly challenging fancy dress theme of cheese and wine to match. In the back of the photo you can see Sune as the devil (that's what cheese is to him) attacking Richard who came as a blue nun (after that classy variety of wine). Then there's Neil as the cheese board, Dean as a (slightly scary looking) French maid, Pete as a box of wine, me as Heidi (Swiss, like the cheese! yes, there were some slightly tenuous links), Mark as Edam and Dave in his welsh top as Caerphilly (and generally looking very cheesey), showing off his now extremely impressive mullet. Sitting in front are Jules the farmer trying to keep Kirsty, his prize cow, under control, Alex as a slice of La Vache qui Rit, and Jim as Friar Tuck.

Cheese and Wine!

There were cheesey nibbles to start with, a cheese tasting blindfold challenge, Monty Python's cheese shop game, cheese fondue, a cheese sculpture competition (see below) and the finest cheese boards on the continent.

During the cheese tasting, we tried feeding a clove of garlic to the blindfolded Doc, but he realised just before biting into it (although he thought we were trying to feed him a rubber, that's how fresh our garlic is!) and passed on to Andy Mac, our trusty generator mechanic, who happily gobbled it up.

The cheese sculpting competition prize winning entries: A skiddoo (Alpine cheese model) complete with driver, Battersea cheese station, The leaning tower of cheesa, Cheese henge and sponge bob cheese pants.

Later on, dosed up on that tasty yellow beef, it got cheesey on the dance floor.

2007-05-05T07:31:00.000-07:00

2 blogs for the price of 1

I've not been very good at writing much about what goes on here day to day on this blog, so...I've started a second. 'The Inside Story' is made up entirely of extracts from my diary. Hopefully it'll give you a bit more of feel for my life down here. Follow the link to read more...

2007-04-28T04:07:00.000-07:00

Getting Darker...

Next week the sun will disappear below the horizon and stay away until August. Here's a glimpse of the run up to the longest night of my life:

More Stunning Aurora. Longer darker nights and lots of clear skies lately, have meant perfect aurora observing conditions. Lat night's show featured hyperactive green snakes shaking their way across the sky, shooting out spikes of yellow light, and some spooky bits where the aurora was making the tops of clouds glow green on the horizon.

I had to ski out to one of the experiments a couple of kilometres from the base, for a bit of routine maintenance at -37C. It's a weird sensations feeling your eyelashes and nosehairs start to freeze. It's quite tricky working at these temperatures too. You can't take your gloves off for long, and touching anything metal is a bad idea. Every now and then I had to do a load of star jumps to regain the feeling in my fingers and toes. It stings like crazy when they start to warm up, but it's a good feeling really, it tells you they're not frostbitten!

Sometimes we have to practice rescue scenarios, as we're our own emergency services down here. Last week we had a go at rescueing poor simon here from the tunnels, where he'd fallen and broken his pelvis (noone seemed that concerned about the fact that he had also lost his head, hands and feet). I was a first aider and stretcher handler (in yellow below). It was a tricky business manouvering the stretcher through all the nooks and crannies of the tunnels buried under about 20m of snow, but we got him out in record time. Here's the triumphant rescue team, and Simon, looking a bit worse for wear:

MeltTank, everyone's favourite way to start the day. At 9am every morning, a team of 3 or 4, bursting with energy and enthusiasm (especially on a Sunday), head out to shovel snow for half an hour. It can be a bit of a mission, but it certainly wakes you up. Nowadays, it's dark in the morning (and most of the rest of the time), so it's floddlit shovelling. Below: me, going for it (trying to make up for those extra 30 seconds in the shower!).

2007-04-16T11:20:00.000-07:00

Winter Team 2007

2007-04-16T08:29:00.000-07:00

Brrrr!

We hit minus 40 for the first time on Saturday afternoon. This morning it was up to minus 44, 69 degrees colder than London.

Inside, however, life goes on as normal, as you can see in the pictures below...

An underground ice cave, buried beneath several metres of snow since its creation in 2004, was undercovered on Friday night. Lo and behold, what did I find down there but a can of Newcastle's finest. Made me smile.

2007-04-16T08:23:00.000-07:00

2007-04-11T08:18:00.000-07:00

Techno Techno

DJ Tom's techno rave birthday party, complete with glow sticks and strobe lights.

2007-04-07T11:18:00.000-07:00

A Glimpse of the Aurora

Thanks to Tom for the photo, nice effort.

2007-04-07T05:20:00.000-07:00

Extreme BBQ

Last night, our wonderful chef Ant, got the Barbie blazing in temperatures of -30 and below! By the time you ate them, sausages were semi-frozen on the outside, but still hot in the middle. The beer turned slushy after about five minutes and you had to be careful your lips didn't stick to the can, as Deano discoverd, much to our amusement. An extreme BBQ even Brian would be proud of!

2007-04-04T12:45:00.000-07:00

SUNDOGS & DIAMOND DUST

Today we had some really cool meteorological phenomena, even the non weather people were getting excited. Diamond dust fell from the sky: little tiny ice crystals that sparkle in the sunlight. The ice crystals bent the sunlight so that we saw these amazing colourful 'sundogs' that look like bits of a rainbow, to the side of the sun. There was also a pillar from the sun to the ground, where the sun was being reflected from the flat surfaces of the crystals. At the same time, icy fog lurked in the distance, adding to the effect. Overall, it was pretty.

In the opposite direction, a nearly full moon shone just above a pinkish horizon. One more thing...I saw some amazing aurora the other night. It lit up a whole band across the sky, wiggling and flashing green, red and purple lights. I'll try and post some Aurora photos soon!

2007-03-30T07:22:00.000-07:00

Pretty Clouds

My Antarctic hero pose,
a chance to show off my gorgeous leopard skin mittens:

Iit's not completely flat here at Halley, the wind shapes the snow surface into pretty ridges and bumps called sastrugi, which are also good for jumps when kiting. here's a photo looking down at the snow on a moderately windy day. The met speak for what you see is 'drifting snow', when the wind picks up the loose powder and it whistles it across the surface. When it gets a bit windier it looks more like the picture below, 'blowing snow', and all you can see around you is white, white, white...

Here's me struggling with a gale force ballon launch, Alex's hat blew away whilst he was taking this photo!

2007-03-26T12:28:00.000-07:00

Kiting the Night Away

Thanks to Dave for sacrificing kiting time, in aid of capturing a beautiful moment on film.

2007-03-24T04:44:00.000-07:00

Met Mast Fun and Games

Yesterday, Dave and I were pulling some crazy stunts, hanging from the top of a mast in the snow, all in the name of science of course. Some of our instruments (like the one I'm playing with in the picture below, which measures visibility and snowfall) needed their annual check-up, which meant fun and games out of the office for an afternoon.

Afterwards, it was back into our lovely work platform (above) for a nice cup of tea (with slightly lumpy powdered milk), prepared for us by the snowman in our absence.

Let Loose in the Kitchen

On Thursday, with the chef away on his holidays, it was down to me to fill the hungry bellies of all 14 of us left on base. Here's the menu I served up with varying degrees of success:

Breakfast: Cheesy rolls, cheese and olive rolls, cheese and sundried tomato rolls, cheese and herb rolls...you get the idea. Various experimental seedy breads and plaits.

Lunch: Vegetarian Lasagna, Pizzas, Chicken in a red wine and herb marinade, Cabbage (which started off purple but somehow turned blue), Guacamole and Marinated Olives.
Rhubarb yoghurt for dessert.

Dinner: Tartiflette (French potato gratin with bacon), Honey and Mustard Chicken, roasted vegetables, courgettes and spinach with feta (which went more than a little bit wrong).
Chocolate Mousse for dessert.

I only used about 2.5 kg of cheese in all that lot, not bad eh!

2007-03-18T07:30:00.000-07:00

Eighties Extravaganza

Last night was Dave's birthday party, and he chose to have us all suffer his disturbing eighties obsession. There were some impressive efforts, with costumes including transformer Optimus Prime, She-ra, crocodile dundee, Brian May, a striking coal miner, Karate kid, Miami vice and Doc Brown form Back to the future. The first fancy dress party of the year set a promising standard for what's to come.

Transformer legend Optimus Prime chatting away to a scarily realistic Brian May.

Me, dressed as Mr Spoon from Button Moon, inside the button moon rocket, off on another adventure, stopping at the South Pole on my way to Button Moon.

2007-03-16T07:50:00.000-07:00

The Southern Lights

Last night I caught my first glimpse of the Aurora Australis: the southern lights. For me, seeing the aurora was one of the main attractions of a winter down here, and judging by last night's taster, I'm not going to be disappointed...

This strange greenish glow appeared in an arc over the crescent moon, in the southern sky. Then it got brighter, and started to shed streaks of light this way and that. At one point, there was a spiral of colour, snaking its way up form the horizon, leaving bright green pillars of light briefly behind it as it meandered across the sky. The whole light show only lasted about 20 mins, but I came back in from the -25 degrees outside with a big grin spread right across my face.

2007-03-11T12:10:00.000-07:00

THE CALM AFTER THE STORM

This was the view from my office window last Friday night as the clouds broke for the first time after several days of gale force winds. Enough to keep me from rushing home for the weekend!

AN UNDERGROUND ADVENTURE

I ventured into the strange and fabulous world of ice crystals last weekend, when I descended 30m into the tunnel network lurking deep beneath the base. I had to help Jimbo, the Halley carpenter come steel erector, to check the temperatures down there, to check it isn't getting to hot! Well, i think the evidence speaks for itself...

HELLO WARKWORTH FIRST SCHOOL!

I would like to say hello to everyone in years three and four at Warkworth First School. Thank you for your letters, I'll have replies on their way back to you very soon!

2007-03-11T10:45:00.000-07:00

Breaking News: Antarctic Cheese Discovered At Last?

Frozen tubes of a substance claiming to be cheese have been discovered in field ration packs.

There is still much doubt surrounding this mysterious 'primula' (labelled 'do not freeze') , which may or may not contain trace quantities of actual cheese.

2007-03-11T10:03:00.000-07:00

.Hard at work...

The met team with big grins on our faces when we finally find treasure (or maybe just a box of electronics) a mere 2 and a half metres down. We were a bit worried we were going to hit the sea. We have lots of instruments that have to be raised every year to stop them getting buried which means lots and lots and lots and lots of digging.

Here I am 'fishing' for air! I'm filling a flask for a global monitoring network that collects air samples from all around the world and uses them to work out how concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane (and other gases) in the air are changing over time. They can use this info to find out if, for example, how rising carbon dioxide levels are linked to global warming. Exciting stuff.

When I'm turning the pumps on and off I have to hold my breath so i don't contaminate the sample. We do this every week, come rain or shine, and send back all the flasks at the end of the year.

2007-03-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

Kiting Action

When I need an adrenalin hit down here, kiteboarding has replaced my usual snowboarding, mostly due to the lack of any kind of hill and/or way to get up it. It's not such a bad trade off, kiting is probably the best combination of peaceful and exciting I've ever found. There's something incredibly beautiful about zooming along, leaning back against the force of the wind, then at the smallest tug of the power bar as you go over a bump in the snow, you float for what seems like hours (it's really only seconds, but the jumps do last a lot longer than snowboarding).
These photos show vehicle mech, Mat, the most experienced kiteboarder on base, polishing his skills. Unfortunately I can't control my own kite well enough yet to get near the photographer without causing multiple injuries, that's also the reason why my own attempts at jumping tend to end up with me eating large amounts of white powdery stuff. Still...practice makes perfect.

2007-03-10T07:53:00.000-08:00

Melt Tank Party

There are no baths at Halley, and we can only dream of a jacuzzi, but for one blissful day of the year: the Melt Tank Party. Brian, Halley plumber, and Mark, our electrician, have been hard at work closing down the summer accomadation building (now that all the summer staff are homeward bound). Before it could be locked for another year though, there was a tradition that had to be honoured...

We all piled in to the 1.5 m square tank that holds all the water for the building, and enjoyed our very own hot tub. Hoses full of holes were tied to the floor (by Brian who seems to have been taking lessons from the penguins and didn't seems to have any problems with holding his breath for several minutes at a time) and pressurised air pumped through them to create the jacuzzi effect. It was a bit of a squeeze, there were thirteen of us in there at one point. The brave few partook in the age old get out, roll around in the snow, then dive back in ritual. I found running to the toilet after one too many beers bracing enough. A great night, and thankfully I was away on my camping trip when the time came for cleaning up afterwards!

2007-03-04T09:08:00.000-08:00

A Few Holiday Snaps

Now I've seen the real Antarctic! No sooner had the winter season started than I set off with three of my fellow winter team to see if we could survive in a tent for a week or so. Naively, we hoped for sunshine and light winds so we could get out and explore every day. Little did we know how much fun could be had sitting out a week long bizzard in an old style pyramid tent, with nothing but a primus stove, Tilley lamp (burns paraffin), some army rations and a good book. Yes, 7 of my 8 days in the wilds of Antarctica was spent in a tent drinking tea, and having ten tons of snow blow down my trousers every time I ventured outside to go for a pee. We did manage one day out exploring, seeing the sights of the Brunt Ice Shelf, with some ice climbing and abseiling thrown into the mix. 8 days in a tent definately makes you appreciate how wild this place is, and all the luxuries we have here at the base (toilets, showers, warmth, bar, cheese, more cheese etc.)

Above: Our guide Sune celebrates the first setback of our trip as a ski falls off my skidoo just 10km from base on the way out. Plenty of time for a cup of tea as we await the AA.

Below: The view from outside our tent for the brave few who left the cosy confines of a sleeping bag during a spot of real Antarctic weather.

Above: Kettles on for a brew. The stoves we were using have hardly changed since the days of Scott and Shackleton, we felt like propper Antarctic heros.

Below: The weather finally perks up enough to get out and practice our mountaineering skills. Here I am in Aladdin's cave, having ice climbed my way up there, looking pleased with myself.

Treasures hidden deeper in Aladdin's cave. The eery blue light made a welcome change from the orange glow of the tent walls. We crawled under the icickles to the top of a ridge where you could see the ridges and crevasses of the zone where the floating ice shelf I live on joins continental Antarctica.

Above: My tent mate, Deano, laughing at me as I fall on my face on our natural ice rink.

Below: Looking back at camp.

An Emotional Farewell

Halley's short summer season came to an end on the 18th of Feb as we waved goodbye to the summer crew aboard the Ernest Shackleton, which quickly disappeared into the clouds of orange smoke bellowing from the flares we let off to mark the occasion. Below you can see me standing shore side, and our snocats on the way back from having watched our last contact with the outside world sail off into the distance.

2007-02-23T16:02:00.000-08:00

Winter...

We waved goodbye to the ship amidst bellows of orange smoke from our flares.
I drove a snowcat back up to a much quieter, more laid back, winter base.

Since then we've had the traditional melt tank party (13 of us crammed into a 1.5m square tank before the summer accomodation building is closed down for the season). Photos to come.

Tomorrow I'm off for a week of camping 50km from the base. Ice climbing, abseiling, exploring and trying not to get tooooooo cold. I will write at length of my adventures when I return. Sorry for the poor blog keeping. It can only get better!

2007-02-17T11:21:00.000-08:00

Bye Bye.

Very soon we will be 18. Stranded for the next 10 months. The ship is here, and tomorrow I'll be waving her farewell until December.

This is me hanging out the backof a snowcat, as I arrived the other day to visit the Shackleton dentist (it's worth having a good check up as any dental work in the winter will have to be done by the doc, who's had a 3 day crash course!).

2007-02-17T10:57:00.000-08:00

First Sunset of the Year

2007-02-08T03:56:00.000-08:00

The Midnight Sun

We've only got a week or so more of 24 hour daylight here, before the sun first officially dips it's weary head below the horizon on Valentines day. This top photo was taken at midnight here, as a ghostly blanket of fog rolled across base from the coast. I'd spent the evening kite surfing/being dragged around completely out of control by a giant parachute. The wind was a bit strong for novices like myself that night, and I can't say that many of my jumps were intentional. I'll try and post some kiting photos soon, or see Dave's blog, I'm sure he's got some good ones.

Pretty clouds! The garden shed on stilts in the background is called BART, it's where we launch a weather balloon from every morning, come wind or shine, but on a good day like the one below, it's lovely watching it float off into the blue yonder.

Halley international Airport was jam packed last Friday, as the twin otter plane took us all for a bit of a sight seeing tour, to get an idea of what's outside of this little white bubble we live in. From the air we saw seals lazing about on the sea ice, eery blue caves in the ice cliffs at the coast, some massive icebergs bobbing about, and intricate patterns carved out by cracks in the ice as the ice shelf moves from land to sea.

2007-01-31T02:13:00.000-08:00

Above some big shiny tractors are towing their home (the garage) to its new location - closer to the bar...
Below you can see my home for a night of learning to survive in true Antarctic style, as I completed the first stage of my field training last week.

2007-01-29T14:13:00.000-08:00

A QUICK UPDATE

Yesterday I had one of the most fabulous days so far. My Sunday off began with a lesson on how to drive big angry Antarctic tractors. I tried to write my name in the snow with the tracks, but gave up after T, having decided that it was more fun just to drive fast.

Next up, I spend the afternoon skijouring, getting towed on my snowboard behind a skidoo through the lovely fresh powder snow that's fallen recently. With the help of our ever obliging vehicle manager, we built a jump and launched ourselves stylishly onto our arses, repeatedly. It was fun.

After dinner I finally put my new found kite flying skills (if you can call them that!) together with my snowboard, and managed to spend more time on my feet than on my arse! I can now kiteboard (slowly) in one way, and back again! It was amazing, and I can't wait to get back out there, which is why, in very lazy fashion, I am going to write no more and instead recommend the blogs of my much more diligent colleagues Dave, Ant and Richard as a means to finding out what I've been up to the rest of the time (including surviving my first night camping out).

Bye for now, more as soon as the wind's too weak/strong for kiting!

2007-01-25T14:04:00.000-08:00

SUNDAY AFTERNOON FOOTBALL

The hardy few braved shorts and t-shirts for the a traditional Halley football match between the 'summerers' and the 'winterers'(my team). Running about like crazed fools (mostly to keep warm!) we tried, but mostly failed to stay on our feet. Below you can see Dave practicing his dance moves for next saturday night whilst the ball was at the other end of the pitch!

2007-01-23T15:52:00.000-08:00

SNOWBOARDING ACTION

2007-01-15T12:38:00.000-08:00

EVERYDAY LIFE

Some people have been asking what it is I'm actually doing down here in this big snowy desert. Well after two and a half months away, I've finally started work as a meteorologist and my day goes something like this:

6.20 (about half an hour after my alarm tells me I'm supposed to get up) Roll out of my bunk and go for a really quick shower. We have to dig all the snow to make our water, so it's in short supply: you turn the shower on for ten secs, turn it off and lather up, then turn it on again for another 20 secs to rinse off. But if you think about it, that's an extra four minutes in bed, so it's not so bad.

6.45 Cereal for breakfast, with powdered milk.

7.oo Head to work. Don my stylish padded orange boiler suit, hat, gloves, goggles, neck warmer, and space boots and walk/ski/ride a skidoo across the snow to the weather platform.

7.45 Launch a helium balloon, with temperature and humidity sensors attached. It usually gets up to about 25km up!

8.00 Dig up snow and throw it down a big hole where it melts to make all the water for everyone living here. Usually takes four of us 20 mins twice a day. Quite fun if the weathers good, but gonna be tough at minus 40!

9.00 Complete a weather observation (clouds, visibility, snowfall etc) and send it to the met office. We do 'met obs' every three hours, along with ozone observations to check the state of the ozone hole. If there are aircraft flying we give them hourly updates on the weather too.

9.30 - 12 Daily jobs like measuring snow stakes to check on snow accumulation, digging snow samples, collecting air samples to look at CO2 levels and generally fixing any experiment that's misbehaving.

10.30 Tea break (mmm cheese on toast...). The weather platform is renowned across the base as making the best cup of tea (and with powdered milk, it's actually quite a skill).

12.00 Time for another weather and ozone observation. We also record the GPS coordinates of the base at midday every day, to see how fast the ice shelf we're on is moving (it's not that fast really, only 500m out to sea each year or so).

13.00 Hop back on skis/skiddoo and go over for lunch

14.00-18.30 More weather, ozone, experiments, entering data into spread sheets, skiing out to check on sensors buried in the snow/ at the top of a mast, and drinking of tea

18.30- 19.30 I usually go for a bit of cross country skiing if the weathers good enough, or just chill out over a game of pool or a (last years) magazine (Hooray, cant wait for the world cup this year!).

19.30 Lovely dinner. Cooked by professional chefs every night, and all I have to do is the washing up. Ooh, and there's always cheese available to go on top. No salad though. We ate the last tomatoes today.

20.00 If the weathers good, I'll definitely head outside for some skijoring (getting towed behind a skidoo on my snowboard, a bit like wake boarding) or kiting (I'm not very good at this yet, but it should work like kite boarding in the sea).

Last night there was a BBQ in the snow, which was pretty surreal. Beer is rationed at the minute (whilst work is busy in the summer season), to 2 cans a night, 4 on Saturdays. Saturday night everyone gets a bit dressed up for a three course meal. Sun and Wed nights are film nights. There's generally something going on.

Hope that gives some kind of idea of the life I'm just starting to adapt to out here. Each day is also interspersed with moments where I realise 'hang on a minute, I'm living on a big lump of ice, this is a bit mental.' I'm not sure I'll ever really get used to life here, but I think that's a good thing.

One of the bonuses of being a meteorologist, is that you're always aware of what's going on outside in this crazy environment. It'll be fun watching the temperatures starting to drop in a month or so, as the current heat wave (some days at the moment, it's colder in Britain!) gives way to constant minus 15, then minus 20 and so on, down to temperatures where you can't go outside with any skin exposed. Last winter, they had a BBQ in minus forty and you had to hold the food over the BBQ as you ate it to stop it freezing before it got to your mouth.

One more thing, a few people have been asking me why the buildings here are on stilts. It's to stop them getting buried in the snow. This is the fifth base on this site, and all the previous ones quickly became underground bases, as year after year the snow fell and built up on top of them. All the buildings here are raised every year so they stay well above the snow surface (that way snow blows under them in storms, instead of gathering around them). Next year work is going to start building the next Halley base, which is going to be built on skis so that it can be moved if it gets to close to the edge of the ice shelf. Follow the link to the British Antarctic Survey website for more on all of this.

2007-01-14T06:05:00.001-08:00

I've been meaning to put this up for a while, but couln't find my camera cable...this is me on Christmas day, my first trip out onto Antarctic sea ice. You can just see a football in the background, we tried to have a game but mostly ended up rolling around in the snow.

2007-01-12T13:52:00.000-08:00

HALLEY AT LAST!

Sorry I haven't posted anything for so long it's been a hectic couple of weeks...

Having survived nine weeks aboard the ship, I made it to Halley at last. On new years day a big red plane on skis whisked me up to the base where I was greeted by a shiny skidoo, and towed along behind to my new home on stilts.

Here's a taster of my new home... (more news of what I've been up to soon, I promise!)

This is where I live: The Laws platform.

My new office: The Simpson Platform.

This is me on my way to work, enjoying the sunshine and
below, fellow meteorologist Kirsty, on her way to work on a more typical antarctic day.

The carpark.

Dave hard at work measuring ozone levels with the Dobson Spectrometer, we do this several times a day. These measurements have been done here since the 1950's and helped us spot the ozone hole.

2006-12-28T04:33:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope you all have a fantastic party tonight. On board the ship (and this will be my last post from the ship!) the party is going to be slightly subdued as we are now only 5 or so miles from arriving at Halley. Looks like work to unpack the ship and bring all the new supplies up to base will be kicking off tomorrow morning at 7ish, so my plan is to try and avoid the normal raging hangover, although the chances of that actually happening are probably quite slim. It's going to be a seventies party on board, and I'm planning to go dressed as a space hopper. Hmmm.

On our sunny Christmas morning we had a visitor, one of the twin otters (planes on skis) from Halley flew overhead to wish us a Merry Christmas and to look for a way through the ice.

Since Christmas we've been getting off the ship most days to play in the snow. The ship moors up to a nice solid chunk of ice and we either get taken ashore in a speed boat, or lowered over the side, clinging onto a giant fishing net type thing, called a 'Wor Geordie'. If anyone knows why it's called that, please let me know!

Down on the ice, in between snow ball fights we've had time for a bit of training. I was let loose on a skidoo (my main method of transport for the next year- great!), and also learned some rope work and rescue techniques for travelling on the ice. The picture below is me, honest.

Christmas dinner came a couple days late, but it was well worth the wait. We had a five course affair, with large quantities of red wine that was felt for days afterwards.

Finally, this is pretty similar to the view out the window at the minute, low stormy looking dark clouds, and lots and lots of ice. But we are edging closer and closer to Halley, and by the time you read this, I'll probably be up on base!

2006-12-24T09:28:00.000-08:00

A White Christmas!

Happy Christmas, and a Merry New Year to one and all.

I'll be thinking of you back home over the next few days, somehow Christmas doesn't quite feel right with 24hr daylight. We sang carols, drank mulled wine and ate mince pies in the blazing sunshine last night! This was my last sunset, just before we crossed into the Antarctic circle:

A few days after this sunset, the ship got stuck in the ice. We're going nowhere fast. It's quite exciting actually, we'd planned to be at the base by now, but global warming has forgotten us, and we're now well and truly stuck in the worst ice seen in these parts for many years. It's about 7 metres thick and covered in beautiful mounds and pressure ridges, with a few giant icebergs poking out here and there. The ice casts amazing turquoise shadows, especially in the crevasses in big icebergs. Sometimes we see the burrows of the snow kangaroos in the ice cliffs. The odd seal or Emperor penguin rears its head from time to time, and then quickly dives out of the way of the ship, until, that is, it realises that we're actually going backwards! We keep running out of steam as the ice proves too much for us, so we back up and take a longer run up. Here's the ice cracking as the ice strengthened bow shows what shes made off:

The latest plan seems to be to sit here in a nice open pond within the ice until the wind changes direction (hopefully within the next few days), and then the ice should blow offshore opening up our way to Halley. Looks like we're likely to be spending New Year on board too!

2006-12-19T08:24:00.000-08:00

NEARLY THERE...

A week since our last port of call, and it's been an eventful week on board. Friday last week was a cheese and wine night, which carried on well into the early hours, followed by a horse racing night on Saturday. My first time at the races and I more than doubled my money! You can see and hear more about all the events on board on the Shackleton diary pages if you follow the link to the British Antarctic Survey website (click on living and working, then diaries).

For the past few days life has been made somewhat challenging by the hurricane force winds and the 8 metre waves they brought along, as we hit by far the stormiest weather of the trip so far. The seas looked really impressive, especially when you could see the waves churning and breaking over an iceberg that was being tossed this way and that. Other meteorological firsts for this week included the first time I officially recorded snow, my first sea ice, and also the first probes fired off the back of the ship to measure the temperatures down to about kilometre below the surface.
I still don't know when I'll get to Halley, it depends on how much ice gets in our way! Earliest ETA is Friday 22nd, but in the ship's sweep stake the chief engineer put his money on January 15th, so who knows...

2006-12-13T16:13:00.000-08:00

BEAUTIFUL SOUTH GEORGIA

I was completely blown away by South Georgia. We only had a day there, but I had saw some of the most beautiful views I've ever seen. Everyone who'd been there before said it was magical, hopefully the photos can show how right they were. This was a fitting place to stop as the man who gave his name to the ship I'm travelling on ended his journey here.

Four of us climbed up Mount Hodges and looked out over to the bay where Shackleton finally sought rescue, then slid back down the snow and ice and went for a swim in the recently defrosted Gull lake.

After a long days exploring, we enjoyed a BBQ, and with the weather staying remarkably warm, we chatted and danced by the ashes until the early hours. It was such a special place that I was reluctant to sleep at all; I watched the king penguins grooming themselves at sunrise before finally retiring.

2006-12-13T15:35:00.000-08:00

BIRD ISLAND

Just two days bumpy sailing from Signy, The Shackleton arrived at Bird Island, a miniature jurassic park just to the west of South Georgia. The place was absolutely teeming with life. On arriving, you had to negotiate hundreds of angry fur seals before you even reached the base. I found myself stranded halfway up the met mast at one point as several protective parent seals circled ominously below. One of the scientists onboard was attacked as he stepped onto the peer by a lurking seal, and ended up with a nasty bite.

Slightly more welcoming than the seals were the giant wondering albatrosses, and the thousands of macaroni penguins in the bigmac colony, with their crazy yellow hairdos.

2006-12-09T09:54:00.000-08:00

SIGNY (South Orkney Islands)

Icebergs!

When I woke up on Thusday, that's all I could see: big ones, small ones, blue ones, grey ones; all shapes and sizes. In the distance I could see sunchine glacier as the Ernest Shackleton approached her first real Antarctic destination of the trip so far. Sometimes, as the ship approached the ice, there would be a flurry of black and white, as the little Adelie penguins scrambled into the water ahead of us.

The ship had to moor up out in the bay, but I was lucky enough to get ashore along with fellow Halley meteorologist, Dave, to set up a new weather station for the Signy Base Commander. As we brought the new cargo ashore, lying amongst it we spotted 5 or 6 giant elephant seals, huddling together for warmth as they malted. You could go right up to them without them batting an eyelid, but every now and then the friendly exterior was broken by a comedy roar that could be heard a mile away.

On day two we were givena tour of the colonies of Adelie and Chinstrap penguins nesing at the other side of the island by Signy's resident penguin expert, Mike.

The chinstraps were still guarding eggs, but these Adelies had already hatched tiny weeks old chicks. If you look closely, you can see a glimpse of the tiny grey bundles of fluff.

2006-12-04T14:29:00.000-08:00

THE FALKLAND ISLANDS

It was news to me that the number 38 bus stops at Stanley, the Falklands, made me feel right at home. I also saw a stretch limo full of lasses in army camouflage gear on a hen night, so it really is just like mini Britain.

I saw my first penguin! Hooray. As we sailed into the Falklands, I saw this little black and white thing, much smaller than I'd expected, gliding along by the side of the ship. That was it. Yesterday though, I went for a walk to a beach called Gypsy Cove, across the bay from the main town of Stanley, and there I saw loads of the buggers, waddling about in happy oblivion.

These ones are Magellenic (I think), different from the ones I'll see in Antarctica, they live in burrows:

The water looked so inviting we had to go for a swim, this is Rob and some new found feathered friends...

It was bloody freezing. Colder than the north sea in January, so needless to say, our 'swimming with penguins' experience was somewhat short lived.

The Falklands looks like a cross between the Carribean (the beaches) and the cheviot hills of Northumberland, but with land mines. It was quite eery walking in the hills that were so recently battle fields. A lot of the beaches are inaccessible because they're still mined too. On one trip, we found an old British Army canteen, with powdered vegetable soup dated 1982.

This ship was built in Sunderland, but ended up at the other side of the world. There are loads of relics like this in the bays, and the local pubs have maps of the ship wrecks over the years.

2006-11-27T15:19:00.000-08:00

NEW LINKS

I've just added some links to the blogs of some of my fellow sailors. Have a look at Dave's and Richard's to see some great photos of the dolphins we spotted off the bow just before arriving at Montevideo. Rob's got loads more photos and stories of what we've been getting up to in Monte. They're all much better than me at keeping them updated, so definately worth a look.

2006-11-27T10:02:00.000-08:00

MONTEVIDEO

Dry land at last. On Thursday, we arrived at the first stop of the journey, Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, and just across the river from Buenos Aires. It seems very European here, you feel more like you're in Spain or Italy than South America, except that it's a bit run down (after the economic crisis in Argentina a few years ago) so some of the buildings are falling to bits. The main square, Plaza de Independencia, above, is pretty impressive though.

Just outside the port is the meat market, and I was pleasantly surprised to find it's more like a giant barbeque than the slaughter house feel I had expected. I was even happier when I found out that the veggie option is a huge bowl of molten cheese!

On Saturday, the usually sleepy streets around the meat market were transformed by locals strutting their stuff to impromtu performances from bands practising for the carnival later in the summer.

Having spent four weeks sweating aboard the ship, dying to jump into the inviting turquoise waters but not being able to, I was determined to make it to the beach for a swim. We chose the windiest day of the trip so far and shivered on the sand drinking red wine out of cartons mixed with coke, but I still went for a quick dip. You can see some lovely alto cumulus clouds in the picture (it's about time I included something about the clouds, seeing as I'm now a professional cloud gazer).

2006-11-15T07:46:00.000-08:00

I'm learning the basics of navigation as part of the lessons I'm taking leading towards my steering certificate. Here I am guiding the ship through rocky waters in a force ten gale. No, ok, we hadn't seen another ship for 3 days at this point, but you can never be too careful.