Hello

Well it’s been a while since my last entry, and not much has happened. The base numbers have dropped down to five, the Ernest Shackleton ship arrived and left and I have spent some nights staying in the huts around the island.

I have so far stayed at three out of four huts; they are Waterpipe, Foca and Cummins. By far the most interesting was Cummins. It is the oldest hut on the island and the one with the most character. It has been good to stay at these places and see more of the island.

I’ve been helping the penguin scientist collect diet samples from Adelie and Gentoo penguins and carried out penguin and blue-eyed shag colony counts. I’ve also helped one of the soil scientist collect soil from around the island and been busy working through the jobs that I need to do around base.

I went abseiling in to some crevasses on the McLeod glacier and had a good look around. It’s one of the highlights so far, absolutely amazing, with lots of huge icicles inside the crevasse. It was a tough day getting there, the weather was not great and we had snow, fog and lots of cloud, but so worth all the effort.

Well that’s all for now we have the Ernest Shackleton arriving on the 26/01 with some new members for the base.

Merry Christmas

I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, especially all my friends, family and loved ones. From Signy Island

Its been busy here

It’s been a while
Well where do I start, we arrived on base on the 17th November 2008; Life here has been hectic work wise and very relaxed in leisure time. We all take turns cooking every evening; it’s been good food all the way so far and we have even managed to have a BBQ.
So far I’ve had a wonder close to base, the furthest I’ve been is to the penguin colonies at Gourlay and over to Cemetery flats

The day was cold and snowing but worth going. The weather here has been a bit erratic, one day can be glorious sunshine in the morning and heavy mist (mank) in the afternoon. We have also had some strong winds (well strong to me) and snow showers. Some days have been bitterly cold where as others have been mild when in the sun to chilly when it goes away.
I am hoping to get over to the other side of the island soon it’s only a couple of hours walk but depends on the weather. To get there you have to go over the ice cap.
I have got some of the technical jobs done including work on the jetty and we are starting to get ready for the ship calling on the 26th December, just packing up rubbish and having a general clear out.
Hope you all enjoy some of the photos.

Latest news

Well I have now left Stanley, in the Falklands, after arriving on the 10th November.

We left the UK on the 9th November at 23:00 and flew for 9 hours to the Ascension Islands. Unfortunately we had to stay airside while the plane was refuelled in 24-degree heat at 8:00 in the morning. After refuelling it was on to Mount Pleasant airport in the Falkland Islands, which we arrived at 15:30 in the afternoon (- 3 hours time difference). In total the flight took 18 hours.

On my first full day in Stanley I had a look in the museum and a walk around before boarding the RRS James Clark Ross, my home for the next 5 days!

On my second day I went for a walk to gipsy cove hoping to see some penguins, but unfortunately I didn’t get to see any. The Cove itself however is beautiful, I also saw old shipwrecks and lots of other wildlife mainly birds.

The weather closed in on the third day with winds up to 70mph, I still managed to go in to town and pick up some gifts and send some postcards although have never experiences winds like that before!!

Stanley was a nice place where the people are friendly and the countryside is beautiful.

We set sail for three days on Friday, the section of the trip I was least looking forward to.
I’m currently on the research vessel, somewhere in the South Atlantic Ocean. The trip has been eventful and yes, seasickness has hit quite a few times.

Ascension Island Shipwreck near Stanley Stanley looking back from the ship

Mount Pleasant Airport By Gipsy Cove Where we are now

Time to leave

It's been a while since my last post, but I will be writing more often as I leave for the Antarctic tonight!!

My next post should be from the Falkland Islands.

I have had some good times on the training courses and met some wonderful people. The time off in between course has given me enough time to relax and get organised in prepartion for this day.

I will sign off with some photos from the advanced first aid course.

It's been a while

Well I've finished the first aid, oil spill, food hygine, oil burner and reverse osmosis (turning sea water into drinking water) training.





I have had two days on a field training course in Derbyshire, what great fun! The weather was great for camping, nothing but sunshine, we did lots of activities such as absailing, jurmaring and orienteering. I must admit, I didn't like going over the crag edge! I found it hard to put my trust in a rope but managed to do it four times in the end. Jumaring is climbing back up the rope using mechanical means, I really banged my knees up doing this and used muscles I didn't realize I had.





Back in Cambridge on Wednesday 24th for another course on fire extinguishers, then off to Plymouth for an advanced first aid course on Monday 29th until the Wednesday 1st, should be interesting this time as we are looking at putting in stitches and intravenous drips among other things! Will write more about the course after it has happened.





Here are some of the photo's that I have been promising, they are in no particular order.





Thanks for the comments, NO I have not got cold feet at the moment (thanks Phil). I'm looking forward to the experience. Keep up the comments as I look forward to reading them.

Camping in Derbyshire

Girton College end of Conference doo!

First Aid training.

Field training in Derbyshire.

the next chapter

11/09/08


Well what can I say it’s been a busy two days. On Wednesday 10th we started with a look at the culture of the company, discussing what could happen and how to deal with certain situations. This was followed with more seminars. The Artists in the Artists and Writers Programme by far carried out the best seminar of the conference. I also found the inspirational moments very interesting as it showed other peoples perspective on life down south.

The seminars finished at lunchtime and then the training started. My first course was Fire extinguisher training, not a bad course but one that I have done before. I did get to play with the extinguishers though!

In the evening we had a BBQ followed by a Ceilidh (Scottish Dancing). All in it was a very good night and I got some good photos which I hope to add at some point.

Today we started first aid training which was quite intense, but I guess it has to be for the environment that we are going to work in. It’s a pity that we don’t receive a certificate for completing the course. We also gave blood so that they could find out our blood group.

I’ve got more first aid training for the next couple of days and then oil spill training which I’m looking forward to.
Hope to get the photos on soon!