Laura was with us for just a couple of days before she started a month of travelling with a friend around northern Argentina, but not to be outdone, Nikki and I still managed to enjoy some adventures of our own! 

Tall ship at Puerto Madero

Yesterday, we got off to quite a late start. It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect we decided for a relaxing girly lunch with a bottle of wine. After a consultation with Laura (South America travel pro!), we decided that Puerto Madero was the place to be. The port itself is very ‘Docklands-esque’, with a slow-running river flowing through the centre, flanked by modern office complexes, riverside restaurants and loft style apartments on each side. We were happy to stroll for a while then enjoyed a lovely and very long lunch with not one but two bottles of vino rosado in the sunshine . 

Casa Rosada in Plaza de Mayo

The rest of the afternoon and evening was a very relaxed affair, focused on food, frappuccinos and shopping!  This morning we got off to an early start as it marked the beginning of Laura’s travels. We had a final farewell breakfast together then saw her off to the bus station to start her journey south to the beach at Mar del Plata.  From there, Nikki and I explored the squares and arcades of San Telmo, the city’s art and antiques district, until we arrived at the Plaza de Mayo.

This is arguably the hottest landmark in Buenos Aires. On 25 May 1810, BA gained it’s independence from the Spanish who were controlling the Rio de la Plata (now Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay) and installed their own government at Plaza de Mayo. One year later the ‘May Pyramid’, was erected to mark their victory and as a reminder of their independence. Today Plaza de Mayo is surrounded by many government buildings, including the Casa Rosada, previous home to General Juan Domingo and Eva Peron. 

After taking a few obligatory tourist snaps, Nikki and I resisted the temptation to shop but wandered all the way through Micro-Centro along the main shopping, street Avenida Florida, to Plaza San Martin in the Retiro district. This is another historic site but is for all intents and purposes a pretty park with benches, shady spots of grass and palm trees. Frankly it’s a perfect location to spend a couple of hours in the sunshine reading books… which is exactly what we did!  Before leaving, we decided to go and check out the colourful display of statues which we could just see through the trees from our little park bench! When we got there we were glad we’d made the effort as it was a ‘United Buddy Bears Exhibition’.

United Buddy Bears at Plaza San Martin

This was a new one on me, but essentially it’s an international art exhibition of giant fibre glass bears, each representing countries from all over the world. Each is designed by an artist from that country and all of the bears stand together in a circle to promote the notion of those countries being in peace and harmony with one-another. BA is the 15^th in a line of exhibitions which have been running since 2002.

We couldn’t always work out what the design had to do with the country the bear represented, but were relieved to find that the Brits had indeed kept it very simple!  

Feeling sleepy after our afternoon in the sunshine, it was very tempting to call it a day and retire to the hotel for a power nap before our last night out, but I had a nagging feeling that if we didn’t drag ourselves to La Boca we were going to regret it…

La Boca is on the other side of town and an area where we certainly wouldn’t want to wander by night. By day however, it is the epi-centre of tango tourist heaven .

According to the guide books, in the fifty years leading up to 1930, almost 6 million foreign immigrants flooded into Buenos Aires and almost half of these were Italians (mainly from Genoa). They lived in the working-class neighbourhood of La Boca near the port where the majority worked and they built shared ‘coventillo’ or tenement style homes from materials such as scrap corrugated iron and wood gathered from the ports. These were then painted in bright colours with left-over paint from the ship-yards.  Over time these buildings were torn down and replaced by dull sets of flats and other homes and La Boca was no longer the vibrant place it had once been.

An unusually sleepy 'Caminito', La Boca

In 1959, local artist and resident Benito Quinquela Martin stepped in. He decided to re-create a traditional ‘La Boca’ style street to give some soul back to the neighbourhood. The street he created with his artist friends became known as ‘Caminito’. It was built on the site of an old railway track by the mouth of the Riachuelo river and is less than 100m long. The street they re-created has replica brightly coloured Coventillos and there are murals painted on the walls of the buildings and art sculptures can be found all along the street.

Today this is the main tourist attraction in La Boca district. While no-one actually lives in the buildings themselves, the street is lined with souvenir shops as well as cafes and restaurants with their own stages where there is live music and tango dancing throughout the day.

We read that it was a complete tourist trap but we arrived late afternoon and had a fabulous time. We took a stroll around the neighbourhood, taking in the artwork and generally soaking up the atmosphere. After a bit of deliberation we decided which bar to park ourselves at and watched the tango dancers and enjoyed a final couple of beers in the sunshine.  

Tango and Quilmes in the sunshine on Caminito

Feeling invigorated by the bright colours and tango music, we were happy to skip on the power nap and instead got our bags packed before heading out for a final night in BA.  Nikki had dinner with a colleague on a work trip a few years ago and was able to make the fab recommendation that we returned to Puerto Madero and ate at Cabana Las Lilas. For anyone planning a trip to BA, this place is FABULOUS! We sat on the riverside terrace and despite all the amazing meals we’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy on the ships, this was the best meal I’ve had in months!  

Nikki and I at Cabanas Las Lilas - Cheers!

Before we even ordered, they brought us a huge platter of sweet roasted peppers, grilled aubergines, sun-dried tomatoes, olives and home-made breads – we were in heaven. The restaurant has it’s own estancia in the Pampas where it rears it’s own cattle and we were about to taste just how good it really was.  Until that point, I have to confess that I thought Argentinean steak was over-rated (shame on me, I know!), but I quite literally ate my words this evening. Nikki had an Argentinean beef skewer and I had filet mignon in a madeira wine sauce with pureed almond potatoes. It goes without saying that it was washed down with a lovely bottle of red and finished off with some home-made French nougat ice-cream. What a perfect way to end our little holiday J. 

Ushuaia is seen by many as the gateway to Antarctica and yesterday afternoon we finally followed in the footsteps of the guests who have visited us at Port Lockroy and made our own return flight from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires. It’s incredible to think that the 15,000 or so passengers we have seen over the course of the summer have all passed through this tiny airport.

Four hours later we touched down in hot, sunny BA. We never got an exact report but the cab driver in Ushuaia told us the forecast was for a temperature of 30 degrees C in BA today. What a contrast to the temperatures we’ve been used to. From a tiny wooden house in Antarctica wearing 5/6 layers of clothes indoors to flip flops, strappy tops and air con!

Nikki, Laura and I are now on our own having left Rick to enjoy a holiday with friends sailing around the Chilean Fjords. We’re now camped out at a hotel in the San Telmo district of BA.  The hotel has a colonial feel with a huge sweeping staircase running up through the centre of the building and after 4 months of living in one-another’s pockets we’re also enjoying the luxury of having our own rooms! There are bright murals over the walls and doors of the hotel and the ceilings and doors are higher than any I’ve ever seen! We’ve chilled out for what was left of the afternoon after we arrived and couldn’t resist taking advantage of the free internet access. Outbound emails were slightly limited however as the keyboard has been used so often many of the letters have been worn off the keys of the keyboards! I found I could hit the right keys as long as I didn’t think about it too much but it became annoying after a while so apologies to anyone that’s feeling put out that I haven’t emailed you yet – I will be in touch soon – I promise!

This evening we went for a stroll around the city. It was still very warm and we managed to get a bit of sight-seeing under our belts as we strolled through Plaza de Mayo en route to the Golden Arches. You are probably hoping this is another famous sight you’ve just never heard of in Buenos Aires, but I am in fact referring to McDonalds! Sad but true, it’s strange the things you crave after 4 months in the Antarctic and hopefully you won’t hold it against me!

 Goodnight! 

So last night we enjoyed our final night on the Vavilov with our friends on the team and their guests. The dinner was an extravaganza with Beef Wellington followed by Baked Antarctica (Baked Alaska, polar style!). We enjoyed one final evening in the bar before tumbling into our bunks for the last time.

This morning I woke up to Woody’s 6.30am wake-up call and within minutes I felt like something wasn’t quite right. Last year we arrived in Ushuaia at a similar time and sailed the final few miles to the port over breakfast in the morning. When I woke up this morning however I realised that the engines weren’t running and as I tentatively pulled back the curtain I realised why.  There would be no gentle sail back into Ushuaia for us, we were already in dock at the port in Ushuaia with coaches and supply trucks parked along side – argh! I guess all good things must come to an end!

Rainbow at the world's end - Ushuaia

We had a quick breakfast and ceremonially deposited all of our smelly penguin gear (which was frankly beyond any washing machine miracle and was certainly NOT being packed in my suitcase) in the skips at the back of the ship. After saying our thank you’s and goodbyes to our friends on the team, we loaded up our trolleys and walked out of the port L.  

The rest of today has been spent pottering around Ushuaia. We had a leisurely ‘second breakfast’ at Ramos Generales, an old fashioned cafe with a fabulous French pastry chef. This is just at the entrance to the port and as such is frequented by the yachties and expedition teams during their precious few hours on shore between expeditions. Needless to say we saw a few faces we recognised which somewhat softened the blow of being back on terra firma. We also spotted several of the yachts which had visited us at Port Lockroy in the marina. So strange to think that these small yachts now anchored peacefully in the harbour, have battled their way back and forth across the Drake so many times over the course of the season.

Star Princess and Amsterdam anchored next to the Vavilov (small white ship next to my head!) at Ushuaia port

It wasn’t long before the port had some unexpected new arrivals too. Not unexpected to the port authorities I’m sure (!), but late morning two enormous cruise liners arrived at the dock. These being the ‘Star Princess’ and the Holland America Lines ‘Amsterdam’. These ships carry circa 3800 and 2000 passengers and crew respectively. We had seen each of them cruising through the Neumeyer Channel at Port Lockroy however ships of this size are not permitted to land passengers in Antarctica so it is therefore more of a scenic tour. They have always been an awesome site even at the back of the bay several miles away, but seeing them up close anchored next to the Vavilov, we realised just how enormous they were! I’m sure they have all sorts of amazing creature comforts on board including the HUGE outdoor plasma screen on the top deck of the Star Princess (which I could incidentally view from my hotel window back in town!), but we wouldn’t have swopped the Vavi for the world!

For those of you who have followed the blog since the beginning, you may recall me mentioning a slogan written across one of the walls in Ushuaia which I believe summed up my experience following my trip to Antarctica last year, ‘Ushuaia – end of the world, beginning of everything’. This faces out to the Beagle Channel and I had only ever seen this from a ship so we couldn’t resist taking a stroll to investigate further. Whenever I visit famous landmarks in cities they always seem to be covered in scaffolding, and typically this experience wasn’t so different. When we eventually found the sign there were cars parked in front of it, but having trekked that far we couldn’t resist a few snaps to mark our journey’s end .

The slogan that got me thinking!

Other than that we have mooched around the shops, sorted out accommodation for the next three days in BA, eaten pizza and ice-cream and even braved a peek at email! This evening we’re going out for Argentinian BBQ, then tomorrow the three of us girls will wave goodbye to Rick and head north to Buenos Aires on the next leg of our journey home. 

Last year, on holiday we very definitely got the Drake Shake both ways but we’ve been fortunate this year and had two fairly good crossings. Nikki and Laura weren’t quite so enthusiastic preferring to ‘sleep it out’ in the safe haven of our cabin with the en-suite bathroom in easy reach (!) but I’ve really loved being back on a ship. We’ve had a bit of swell and the ship has been rolling a bit but generally it’s been smooth and it’s amazing to take in the vastness of the ocean.

Yesterday I spent most of the day pulling together photos for a presentation for the guests of the Vavilov.  Metaphorically, this was us ‘singing for our supper’, as Peregrine was very kindly giving us a lift home after our original plans changed. In return, we offered to give the guests a unique insight to our, ‘Long, Hot Summer at Lockroy’, or so the title for the presentation went!

As you can imagine, between the four of us we had literally thousands of photos to choose from to support the presentation, but we tried to think of particular occasions which would give the guests a bit more insight about what we got up to over the summer months and came up with a few beauties. As we went back through the photos so many hilarious memories came flooding back!  Photos included the fantastic sunset the night of our arrival, birthdays, Christmas, hideous meals we had cobbled together as well funny photos we had taken of us in all our gear for our clothing sponsors.  

Today was our second full day on the Drake. We woke up to noticeably warmer (albeit wet) weather with just a little bit of swell.  We also picked up a few albatrosses which are now following us but since it’s rainy and I’m always slightly paranoid about falling off the side of the ship (!) I haven’t ventured outside to fully investigate! By late morning we were off the coast of South America approaching Cape Horn. The swells got larger as I’m sure you’d expect and from the bridge we could see somewhat impressive great waves spraying over the bow.

At the 12 nautical mile point, Mette (from the expedition team), radioed the Chilean authorities for permission to approach beyond the standard closest distance. With her powers of persuasion, she received permission for us to approach to within 3 nautical miles of the Cape. It’s an impressive sight in itself but the jagged peaks of mountains jutting out just above sea level were almost more frightening and it’s easy to see how 30,000 sailors could have lost their lives at sea in these perilous waters.

Late this afternoon we arrived in the shelter of the Beagle Channel seeing South American land for the first time in four months. Woody led a final expedition recap for the guests in the panorama lounge followed by a ‘Best of’ photographic slideshow showcasing some of the guest’s best photographs from their 18-day trip to the Falklands, S. Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula.  It was strange watching the highlights of everyone’s trips and that combined with seeing the land engulfing us really did strike a chord. I started to absorb that our huge adventure was coming to it’s end L.

Wildlife at Lockroy

The general concensus seems to be that the chicks have had a very good year at Lockroy. We’ve enjoyed some lovely warm and sunny days which are ideal conditions for the chicks who have been happy to lay on the dry ground and soak up the sunshine between frantically chasing their parents for meals!  The majority of the chicks are now a couple of months old and have shot up and out!  They’re so large now that both parents have to head off to sea together to find sufficient food to keep the chicks going.  During this time the chicks are left alone on the island and form a little crèche to keep one another company and seek safety in numbers from being preyed on by the Skuas. We keep these areas completely free of passengers to leave them space to huddle or run in the event whereby a Skua swoops down.  The only area which is a little bit tricky is the path to the hut itself which seems to be a favourite sunbathing spot for the chicks!  Since we need to get in and out of the building we take extra care to move slowly and carefully in this area but the chicks seem very happy watching life go by. With all the food brought to them by their hard-working parents, they are now, in most cases, larger than their parents and have a mix of soft downy fluff as well as new adult feathers all over their rotund bodies!!  They’re quite a funny looking sight and it’s hilarious watching these huge chicks scurrying around the island.  They often topple over their huge great big bellies and get out-run by their more agile parents!

With the change in the seasons, the snow has started to fall again and it’s been fun watching the chicks’ first encounter with snowflakes. They have been totally mesmerised watching the huge flakes fall from the sky and we’ve had many a Kodak moment taking photos of them catching the snowflakes in their hungry beaks!  They’re also uber curious now and love to check out the passengers who visit us at the base. We ask people to move very slowly and carefully, however if anyone stands still it’s normally only moments before a little chick is pecking at their boots, walking poles, or straps dangling from backpacks and they have a particular love of walking poles! Confusion always ensues if and when a chick decides to have a snooze on the wooden ramp leading to the hut during a visit or worse still, even wandering all the way into the hut as happened during a small-ship visit a couple of weeks ago. One evening during a visit when I looked through the window of the shop into the entrance hall there was a chick standing on the matt taking everything in. Clearly we couldn’t let him come any further but I somehow had to entice him out while keeping my distance – not an easy one!  Knowing their love of bright colours, I was finally able to entice him/her out by dangling Rick’s bright purple croc! We also have a few nests of very late chicks. One is just near the front door of the base at the bottom of the flagpole and we’re frequently asked about the chances of their survival. So far they seem to be doing ok and are already being left alone during the day as their parents go off in search for food. They huddle up together and yesterday they even seemed to be being baby-sat by one of the older chicks – it was very very sweet.  So far the Skuas have paid them no real attention and we can only hope it remains that way.

In the past few days we’ve had two elephant seals and a weddell seal come to pay a visit on Goudier Island. We still haven’t been too inundated by leopard seals ,as usually happens at this time of year, although the two resident leopard seals are often spotted patrolling the shores.  Passengers have seen them catching Gentoos during their zodiac cruises, but thankfully we haven’t seen so many ourselves.  The adult Gentoos who have raised their babies are also now moulting all over the island. They go off to sea for a long time to feed as once they start to moult they cannot return to the water for approximately three weeks until their new feathers have grown through and they’re waterproof once more.  The whole process requires a lot of energy and it looks so uncomfortable when you see quite long fluffy feathers all over their faces.  These are the feathers which take the longest to come through as they cannot preen them the same way they can peck at the rest of the feathers on their bodies. Again we are just grateful for the dry warm weather which makes the process slightly less harrowing for them and we always give these penguins a particularly wide-berth. We have also had a Giant Petrel hang around for a few days. These are huge pre-historic looking scavenger birds which fly on thermals. We had one here which was pecking away at the remains of a chick a Skua had caught.  He certainly didn’t leave much, but since the chick was already dead it didn’t seem quite so grizzly to watch although the photos really aren’t very pretty. On a lighter note, the little Sheathbill chick that hatched at the front door is doing well and there’s also another little chick at the back of the hut (right under my bed!).

Ship Visits and Other News!

February has been a very busy month with many back-to-back ships visits and a lot of yachts coming and going.  Two weeks ago we enjoyed our final visit with Prince Albert II and in typical PA II style, a real treat was in store!  It was a beautiful sunny afternoon when they came in and Captain Peter invited us all on board for the evening.  Sadly however towards the end of the evening the EL Ignacio decided that it was too beautiful an evening to stay at anchor in one place and asked Captain Peter if it was possible to change the itinerary and sail south down through the Lemaire. This is a narrow channel between two mountain ranges with stunning views all around. This would however mean that we would need to stay on board – DARN! . The only trouble was that we had two ships due the next day :-/. I’ll spare you the long version, but we had a little team huddle and agreed that Nikki and I would spend the next 24 hours on board and Rick and Laura would go on a trip to Wordie House (another old British base which the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust has just taken over responsibility for) within the next couple of weeks.  Within ten minutes our bags were packed and we were heading out the door. When we got on board we were ushered to the best suite on the ship once again, which was a huge treat and it didn’t take us long to make ourselves at home .  We had a delicious dinner with some of the expedition team before entering the Lemaire.  As promised it was a stunning evening and we sailed through, sipping champagne on the chilly deck, doing our best to take photos with our free hand!

The following morning we were up early and enjoyed not one but TWO zodiac cruises around Pleneau Island or the ‘Iceberg Graveyard’, as some call it. It’s actually a lot less grim than it sounds and is home to huge grounded icebergs which have been twisted and wound into all sorts of shapes by the tides and high winds that have swept against them.  It was a stunning, still day with beautiful blue skies so there were amazing reflections of the icebergs into the water. We weren’t the only ones enjoying the sunshine though as we cruised past crabeater and leopard seals snoozing on icefloes.

In the afternoon we sailed north back up through the Lemaire. On the aft deck, passengers enjoyed a BBQ, champagne and the two hot tubs with the stunning mountain scenery all around. It really was something else!  During this cruise we learned that our afternoon ship visit at Lockroy had cancelled and Rick said we could stay with the PA II for the afternoon as they were due to visit Dorian Bay. This is the bay around the corner from Lockroy that we visited with the team of the Ocean Nova earlier in the season. For the past few hours we had been in open water, enjoying the mountains and icebergs but had encountered very little wildlide. That ALL changed when we opened the door of the bridge and walked onto the bow – PENGUIN – ARGH!  Boy do they smell! It’s amazing what you can get used to when you live on a tiny island with 1800 penguins!  Even at anchor out in the bay it hits you like a truck – bless their little feathers!  We really enjoyed our final landing though and went ashore on the first scout boat with the team to prepare the site for the landing. We trekked up the snow hill laying out flagpoles as a guide for the guests, then arrived at the brow of the hill which allowed us to look down the other side and across the whole of Port Lockroy bay. We could see that a lot of icebergs and brash ice had blown into the bay overnight, which had made the main zodiac landing site inaccessible and a yacht was enjoying a visit. After they left we could see Rick back at work painting the windows. It was very strange looking down on life at Lockroy without us!  As with all good things, our little holiday had to come to an end. We said our goodbyes to the fantastic team and whizzed back around to Goudier Island by zodiac with our friends Captain Peter and Ignacio (the EL).  We enjoyed a final half hour with them enjoying a cup of tea and a Penguin biscuit .  Ignacio later emailed us to say it had been one of the highlights of his season . It was with huge sadness that we waved them goodbye and I just want to say thank you to everyone on board for all your kindness and hospitality towards our little team over the course of the season.

Soon enough it was time for Rick and Laura’s little sojourn and Nikki and I were home alone!  It was just for one particularly busy day (at our IAATO limit of 350 guests from Le Diamant and Quark’s Clipper Adventurer), but I amazed myself by actually loving giving the pre-landing briefings on board the ships and we had a great day .  Rick and Laura also had a very successful day at Wordie House (Argentine Islands) measuring up to work out what materials the Trust needs to bring south next year to restore the building to it’s former glory.

Having proved we could be trusted (!), Rick was happy to accept an invitation on board the National Geographic Endeavour to travel south across the Antarctic Circle to Detaille Island to check out the condition of another old British base. We had heard it was in fairly good shape, but given the Trust’s mission to restore and conserve British Antarctic Heritage it was too good an opportunity to miss.  This would be a two day trip and we were all fired up to run an all girl base!  Needless to say all the visiting passengers loved the novelty of it!  Over the course of the two days we enjoyed visits from Antarctic Dream, Polar Pioneer, Minerva and Shokalskiy. All the visits went really well and we were so hyper efficient that we even managed to fit in a bit of wildlife watching between visits. While waiting to be picked up from the whalers chains for the pre-landing briefing on Shokalskiy, we watched a couple of Minke whales cruising on by and in the evening enjoyed drinks on the rocks watching a couple of leopard seals playing in the water beneath us. Rick also really enjoyed his trip down to Detaille and I think it’s fair to say that a fun time was had by all.

Try as we may however, it’s hard to ignore that the season is coming to a close. The weather is still very good (unusually so according to Rick), however the dark evenings are drawing in and we’ve now said goodbye to many of our new friends. We’ve had some fun nights on board a number of the ships including karaoke on Corinthian (I’d like it to be noted for the record that Laura hid behind a pillar while Rick, Nikki and I were left to fend for ourselves singing Dancing Queen!) and Cosmo cocktails and a special Port Lockroy serenade by Dan, the flamenco guitar playing kayak guide on board Shokalskiy. That was a particularly memorable night and long after we were returned to the island, Nikki and I were still sitting down by the whalers chains in our immersion suits, giggling and laughing, looking back out at the ship’s lights in the bay.  You’ll be pleased to hear that Dan’s brilliant serenade was all captured on video and will be posted very soon!

One of the biggest surprises this month was a guest who came to stay.  During one of our scheduled maintenance days, we were sitting in the bunk room with the door shut having lunch when we suddenly heard loud footsteps in the hallway. It’s not the first time this has happened but it’s always a little disconcerting when you think you’re alone in the bay and all of a sudden you have unexpected company!  There was a knock at the door and when we cautiously opened it there was a sailor dressed in all his waterproofs. This was Daniel, a solo yachtsmen who is currently sailing around Antarctica single-handed.  Quite a feat.  Daniel is a former Czech psychologist who has so far sailed his boat the ‘Waterbird’ from New Zealand.  He stayed with us for a couple of days, enjoying meals and company with us and helping us out with some of the maintenance tasks around the base.  He fitted in beautifully in one of our bright orange Dickie suits, paintbrush in hand . It really was a breath of fresh air having him around. We were bit worried about him one night when we woke up to the base shaking, as a huge glacier calved right behind the Waterbird. We jumped up with our torches, but it was so dark we really couldn’t see much. The following day he said he slept straight through it and we discovered he’s obviously even more hardcore than we realised ;-.  For anyone who’s interested in following Daniel’s progress, his website is www.polarka.com.

We’ve also done very well food-wise this month with two particular treats.  Before Christmas I received a small but very heavy parcel from a town in Scotland where I definitely didn’t know anyone!  It was all very mysterious until I opened it to find a mail order Clootie Dumpling!  Most of you reading this are probably still none the wiser (!), but Clootie Dumpling is a traditional Scottish pudding of deep rich fruit, a bit like Christmas cake, which is then steamed in muslin to cook it. Delicious!  We were going to save it for Burns’ Night here, but I was loath to eat it without custard!!!  Eventually however we were given some and finally enjoyed that decadent treat. It happened to be while Daniel was here and I think it’s fair to say he also thoroughly enjoyed it as he had a grin from ear to ear!  The second surprise food-wise was from our friends Jack and Jean, the doctors on board Endeavour on our route south. They have worked on various National Geographic Lindblad expeditions throughout the season and have been very kind to us.  During our route south and over the course of the four months, Laura has become well-known for her fondness of ice-cream and during their last visit to us, Jack and Jean brought us all an ‘Ice-cream Revolution’ ice-cream maker  all the way from the US – GENIOUS!  It is essentially a plastic ball which you fill with ice and rock salt then you fill a metal cylinder in the middle with cream, vanilla essence and sugar, then shake and roll the ball around for 20 minutes. Laura and I were out gathering ice faster than you could say ice-pick and we had a delicious bowl of ice-cream, stewed apples and cream. Port Lockroy heaven! Thank you so much Jack and Jean for such a thoughtful gift. We will definitely be recommending that rock salt is added to the 09/10 Port Lockroy shopping list so that our successors can enjoy the same treat .

So that’s you all up to date.  It’s now a day later and our final full day at Port Lockroy.  My Post Office Peli cases have gone back to Stanley and our suitcases are all packed.  All that remains is for us to thoroughly scrub out Bransfield House and say our goodbyes to our little penguin friends.

This truly has been the most incredible experience.  We’ve met so many kind and inspirational people who I will never forget.  I will be incredibly sad to say goodbye to our temporary home and all the people that we’ve met, but I am really looking forward to coming home and seeing all of my friends and family, who I have dearly missed.

Tomorrow morning we will receive our last groups of guests to the Living Museum, Post Office and Shop, before we join them to sail north back to Ushuaia on board the Akademik Sergey Vavilov. En route, we will make a couple of landings before crossing the Drake Passage, arriving back in Ushuaia on 7 February. We will have one day there before flying north to Buenos Aires on 8th and arriving home on 12th March.

I will try to make a couple more short entries on the way home, but just want to say thank you to everyone who has supported me with this and followed my progress over the course of the past few months.   Extra special mentions must go to Mum, Dad and Lorna ,as I don’t think I’d have been brave enough to do this without their support and also to Ralph and Elaine who have provided a home and taken such good care of Chloe, my much-loved furry friend .  Thank you.

Well all that remains is to say a final  ‘over and out’  from Port Lockroy and I can’t wait to tell you all about my adventures in person when I get home.

High summer is peak season for the yachties here and we’ve had lots of visits over the course of the past three weeks with up to three yachts at anchor in the back bay at any one time. We’ve had groups of mountaineers, divers and also general interest groups, who are down here exploring the peninsula in small groups. The advantage of this being that there’s no fixed itinerary and the yachts can get into narrow channels and bays where expedition ships don’t often go. For anyone interested in doing just that, visiting yachts have included Xplore, Australis, Pelagic Australis, Spirit of Sydney, l’Esprit d’Equipe, Vahere, Santa Maria Australis and Pod Orange.

During January we’ve had many visits by ships but showers were a little light on the ground (!) as many of the ships were on tight itineraries and needed to head north immediately following their visits. Having said that, we’ve had some great visits from new and returning ships.  Since I last wrote to you we’ve had two great visits with both the Corinthian II and Prince Albert II. You’ve already heard all about our previous visits on board the Prince Albert II, but I’m not sure I’ve told you much about the Corinthian II. They visited us for the first time on 27 December with my friend and old flat mate  Alison’s parents on board.  It was so lovely to see their friendly smiling faces as I entered the ship’s lounge to participate in the pre-landing briefing and it was so nice to be able to show friends around our temporary home here and tell them more about everyday life on base.  With three ships that day, timing didn’t permit us to join the ship in the evening, however we’ve enjoyed two more evenings on board with the Captain, expedition team and passengers since then, including a great night out on Australia Day.  Like the Prince Albert II it’s an exceptionally comfortable ship and the dinner menu goes on forever with multiple courses served up. I tried to be modest but seemed to receive enormous helpings of everything, even courses I didn’t actually ask for…. it was only when we returned to base one evening that it transpired I had accidentally eaten Laura’s soup  – HA HA HA!  Just call me the human vacuum .

We’ve also had two more visits from Prince Albert II. The first was a special charter for the Hotchkiss School with 80 high school students and teachers on board.  This is the school that the Mars family attended and each year Mr Forrest Mars brings a group of students south to experience the Great White Continent for themselves. Mr Mars was on board with some close family and friends who very kindly donated a stash of chocolate, peanut M&Ms and Skittles which we divvied up between our little team.  Thank you very much to the Mars family and Hotchkiss School!!
A week or so later Prince Albert II was back and treated us to another overnight stay on board. Given that showers were a little thin on the ground in January, I decided I had some serious catching up to do and managed to have two showers and a bath in the space of six hours! You’ll be forgiven for thinking this is a slight overkill, however the No. 1 rule for girly girls in the Antarctic is shower as often as possible,… you never know when or where the next one is coming from!!!  Showers aside, we had lovely pre-dinner drinks with Captain Peter then joined him for dinner on our own little table.  We exchanged all sorts of funny stories over another five-course dinner (caramelised onion tart with rocket, followed by penne arrabiatta, followed by beef which would literally melt in your mouth with pesto and potato rosti, followed chocolate mousse presented with a chocolate and raspberry flower – I would like to point out at this point that Rick had two desserts!). We continued the evening in the bar sipping amarettos before having a bath and sinking into a soft warm bed. None of us got much sleep as we found the cabins so hot in comparison to our little hut, but to be honest, I was very happy lying awake in the comfort of a warm dry cabin .

 We had two visits the following day. The first was the passengers from the Prince Albert II and the second was the National Geographic Endeavour which we travelled south on.  We girls haven’t been on board for a while as they have made several early morning visits when Rick has gone onboard alone to do the briefing while we dragged ourselves out of bed and got the base ready for visitors. We were therefore really pleased when they came in the afternoon and we were invited on board for the evening and could spend some quality time with the crew and expedition team. 
After a quick sauna and shower (the third in 24 hours!), we headed for the lounge to join the passengers for the evening re-cap session.  En route we saw Lisa Trotter (Expedition Leader and Diver on board the Endeavour) emerging from the sea in her dive gear onto an ice floe close by a safety zodiac. We were gazing on as we walked down the steps to the lounge but our eyes were suddenly on stalks when we saw another long black object emerging behind her onto the ice floe. In recent weeks we’ve heard stories of recreational divers having interactions with leopard seals underwater, which is against IAATO guidelines and generally not a good idea as little is known about them and their behaviour is therefore unpredictable. The concern with underwater interaction being that one group’s interaction could potentially cause a seal to become interested in other divers who aren’t so keen on that kind of attention. We were really worried that Lisa was being followed onto an ice floe, but we needn’t have worried as it transpired it was just Robert, her dive buddy and friendly Hawaiian zodiac driver clambering onto the ice floe in his black head-to-toe dry suit to have his picture taken with her!  Needless to say, Lisa and Robert later had a very good laugh at our expense and we have since suitably chastised ourselves for having such overactive imaginations!

After the end of the daily recap session the Captain said a few words about the Endeavour’s future as the ship is drawing towards the end of her days in the Antarctic to retire to the Galapagos Islands. This is a very sad time for the crew and expedition team as she is a much-loved ship in the Antarctic tourist industry. Some time ago, a member of the crew hand-stitched a beautiful flag which has flown at the bow of the ship throughout many seasons. Over the course of the years many wealthy passengers have offered vast sums of money for the flag but it was so precious they couldn’t be persuaded to part with it. The Captain went on to explain however that in order to raise money to design and produce a t-shirt which could be given to all the staff and expedition team as a memory of their time on Endeavour at the end of her final Antarctic season, they were going to part with the flag. This may at first seem like a money spinner until the Captain went on to explain that they were unwilling to auction it off to the highest bidder, but would allow each passenger on board (80 passengers or so) the opportunity to buy just one ticket each at a cost of $10. At the end of the Drake Crossing they would draw a raffle and the winner would receive the flag.   Even now knowing how much the ship means to the crew I still feel really moved by the gesture. It will certainly be a very sad day when the Endeavour makes her final crossing of the Drake Passage. After the recap we all split up to sit and chat with different groups of passengers over dinner and I had a lovely evening with four Americans. Two ladies from California and one lovely couple from Colorado who used to live in Woking – small world!  We had a lovely conversation talking about everything under the sun.  They were particularly interested in everyday life at Lockroy and we spoke about how I’d got on being so far away from friends and family. Their son and daughter-in-law had lived in Africa for two years so they knew all about the long-awaited long-distance phone calls and awaiting the mail, etc. and also asked a lot of questions about what would happen when I get home. That’s something that has certainly been on all of our minds here when we hear just small snippets of what’s in the news back home.  I can’t pretend it’s not on my mind but we concluded that no matter what’s going on, this is a unique experience and I’ll come away with memories and funny stories which I hope I’ll never forget.

In other news…!  We were very excited to receive inbound post one week ago and I was personally very pleased with my package from mum and dad containing two boxes of Maltesers from the Woolworths closing down sale .  I was thrilled that despite the doom and gloom, finally some good had come from the economic downturn and we enjoyed them the following evening during a Port Lockroy cinema night .  Thank you Mum and Dad!

We’ve also had some great weather of late which has allowed us to crack on with base conservation and restoration work between ship visits. We’re coming on leaps and bounds with the painting and Rick and Nikki have also done a great job chipping away at the rock leading up to the base from the ‘Whaler’s Chains’ passenger landing point to make some news steps. This will hopefully make the path safer and the base more accessible to passengers a little less steady on their feet.  Rick has also enjoyed making a little border about one meter deep between the gentoo nests in front of the hut and the path where passengers walk up to the building. We hope this will make the area look a bit more tidy and help to create a more visible boundary between walkways and the gentoo nests.  He did this by churning up ‘muck’ (see last blog entry) and little stones from around the island and transporting it in his shiny new yellow wheel barrow .  The end result looks like a little garden. This hasn’t been lost on any of the expedition teams and no-one can resist teasing him about when the rose bushes will arrive. (For anyone who’s wondering, not only would they not survive the harsh weather here, but we’re not allowed to introduce new plant species to the Antarctic!).

On 27th January, we had a visit from the Brits in Saga Spirit of Adventure. They were a very enthusiastic bunch, many of whom knew people who had worked for BAS over the years either here or at other British bases on the peninsula. They were headed for Stanley so they also took out our mailbags for us and left us some very British gifts of tea bags, bacon and Heinz baked beans among other treats .

After that busy spell we were practically broken and really in need of a bit of a break. Like a knight in shining armour, Steven, the friendly Aussie, sailed into the bay on his yacht, Xplore. He had a group of ten passengers on board who visited the base in the morning and offered us the opportunity to join them on the yacht for the afternoon as they sailed down the Peltier Channel behind the base.  We were so exhausted I’m ashamed to say that it was actually quite a tough decision to go rather than enjoy a very rare lazy afternoon at the base writing a few postcards and writing these long-promised blogs, but after giving ourselves a good talking to we got ourselves sorted and radioed over to Steven to accept his very kind and thoughtful offer. It was the first time we’d left Port Lockroy since our trip to Palmer Station at the end of November.  It was a beautiful hot sunny day and we really couldn’t have asked for a better day to sail down the channel.  It’s a fairly wide stretch of water lined by a glacier on one side and the Fief mountain range on the other. The water was completely still and there were beautiful reflections of the rocky peaks on the water.  We sat out on deck chatting to the passengers, drinking tea out of thermos mugs and eating chocolate digestives and smarties…. heaven!  Four miles down the channel we arrived in a tiny bay and secured four lines to rocks to make a secure anchorage before getting our outdoor gear on and trekking up past a small gentoo colony to see some amazing views down towards the entrance to the Lemaire Channel.  Five of us followed the footsteps of an ‘advanced party’ up the snow hill, but when we got to a cluster of rocks the footsteps came to a natural end.  We continued along the same path with no sign of anyone ahead of us until we got dive bombed by Skuas  – argh!  Guessing that we were probably a little too close to a nest among the rocks, we darted back out onto the snow and walked on trying to find the others while still hitting the snowy deck every few minutes as the Skuas took great delight in swooping over us…  We couldn’t be anywhere near nests by this stage, so they were clearly dive-bombing us just for their amusement!  Eventually we found our friends….the only trouble being we had clearly walked straight on along the snow hill while the others had taken a gentle path down to the shore to the non-active Chilean base, Yelcho!  We scooted down the snow to join them and took a look around the base area making sure we left it the way we found it.  There was another small colony of gentoos who were slightly behind the breeding stage of our gentoos here, with many of them apparently still sitting on eggs. After making our way back to the yacht, we had a lovely Thai curry before Steven drove us all the way home in the zodiac.  Earlier in the day a huge glacier had calved here at Port Lockroy – the largest Rick has ever seen in all the summer’s he’s worked here (all captured on my trusty video camera – thank you everyone at IDC!).  By the evening the ice had been carried out by the tide into the channel so it was an amazing drive back through the ice to tiny Goudier Island.

So that takes me all the way up until yesterday!  We had Clipper Adventurer here in the morning, led by Laurie Dexter who was my Expedition Leader when I came to Antarctica last year, followed by Polar Star in the afternoon and Hanse Explorer in the evening. It was especially great to catch up with our buddies Chris and Joel, zodiac drivers on Polar Star. We’d not seen them since Christmas Eve and they had since been home for two weeks well deserved rest while the ship was chartered to another company. Sadly they were heading due north immediately following their visit but we hope we will catch up with them again soon.  During their visit Hanse Explorer motored into the back bay.  Hanse is a small luxury ship carrying just 12 passengers. They had a lovely Swiss group on board who invited us to join them for dinner.  Suffering with a cold, Nikki decided to spend the evening on base, but Rick, Laura and I were there before you could say Fondue!  We had a lovely evening with them and really did have the most fabulous fondue and were sent home with a goodie bag of bread, eggs, stilton and wine courtesy of Jerome, their lovely chef.
Wildlife at Lockroy

So all that remains is to fill you in on how our little black and white neighbours are doing. In the past two weeks they have shot up (and out!) and are growing in confidence every day.  By the middle of January most of the chicks on the island were between 2-4 weeks old. The elder chicks were starting to build up enough confidence to take a few steps away from the family nest and as the month wore on, they could be seen waddling around, flapping their little wings and chasing their parents for food! Most of the chicks are now between 4-6 weeks old.  While the chicks are young, their parents still take it in turns to swim out to sea to forage for food while the other keeps watch over them, however in the past week the chicks have started to huddle together in a crèche.  This is when the chicks group together in a small area while both parents leave them alone to go out and gather food. On this side of the island we currently have one crèche on the path in front of the hut and another in front of the boatshed. There are typically a few adults in the crèche that seem to be keeping an eye on them and do their best to fend off the Skuas (the chicks’ predators) but there is still the odd casualty which has been quite traumatic to see.

The little chicks are uber curious though and one little fella in particular regularly snoozes on the ramp leading up to the hut. We’ve even taken to closing the door when there aren’t people around as he seems pretty intent on coming inside to explore!

In the past few weeks the two resident leopard seals have also been putting on a show, patrolling the shore where the gentoos jump out the water at the end of the day.  They also like to play and show off around the zodiacs which whizz in and out of Goudier Island throughout the day.  I hold my breath every time I see one as I’m convinced it’s going to catch one of the gentoos, but the penguins are pretty speedy little swimmers and I’ve only actually seen one penguin being caught and thrashed around. For some reason, having paid much closer attention to the chicks of late, it wasn’t quite so traumatic as I thought until Rick pointed out that that would be another orphaned chick – argh!  Anyone who knows me well will realise I was not a happy camper!  Moving swiftly on, the two Snowy Sheathbill chicks from the nest under the boatshed have now hatched and the tiny chicks can be spotted scurrying around under the boatshed steps and the gentoo nests. The gentoo chicks aren’t quite sure what to make of them but copy their parents and hiss at them to shoo them out the way.  Unlike their parents Sheathbill chicks are small, brown and fluffy and I think they look a bit like quails. They’re much cuter than I expected too!  No sign of any more Sheathbill chicks for now but we expect chicks in the nest at the front door of the hut to arrive any day now.

Well that’s all my news for now but will be in touch again soon!

What is the historical significance of Port Lockroy and why are we here?

Port Lockroy was discovered by Jean-Baptiste Charcot in 1904 and has over the years been used as an anchorage by the whalers, a safe harbour for Antarctic explorers and later became a British Scientific Station. Bransfield House, was constructed on Goudier Island in February 1944 as part of the British WWII secret military operation, code-named ‘Operation Tabarin’, and to make some initial territorial claims to part of the continent. To strengthen these claims, a small British Post Office was established on 23 March 1944. Following the war, the base was handed over to the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS) which later became British Antarctic Survey or BAS as it’s more commonly known today. The most significant research undertaken at the base was the study of the outer atmosphere or ‘Ionosphere’.  This is the region of the upper atmosphere above 100km.  However, there were also studies of how lichens, ferns, marine mammals and birds survive the harsh conditions of the Antarctic.  During the time when the base was operational there would be between four and nine men living and working here for a period of two and a half years.  The base closed in January 1962 when British research moved on to other locations on the peninsula and the base fell into disrepair.  Parts of the roof had collapsed, visitors had collected ‘momentoes’ and the base was in a very sorry state indeed.  By the 1990’s many nations had old bases which were no longer used and the signatories of the Antarctic Treaty agreed that in order to keep Antarctica pristine, these old bases must either be dismantled with all traces removed, or else, if it was proven that they were of significant importance, they could be restored and maintained.  This was to be Port Lockroy’s fate and it became historical site No.61.  In 1996, BAS sent a team to restore the base to it’s former glory. Since this time, the base has been open to visitors as a living museum during the Austral summer, so they can get a feel for what an old base used to look like and how the early scientists lived. The UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (the registered charity which we work for today) took over responsibility for the conservation and maintenance of Port Lockroy in 2006. Today the on-going maintenance of the base is self-funded from the proceeds of a small gift shop we run here and the sale of British Antarctic Territory stamps sold from the sub-Post Office which was also re-opened in 1996. The Trust sends a small team south every year in order to welcome guests to the living museum, run the shop and Post Office and continue the on-going maintenance and restoration programme to conserve Port Lockroy as a historical site.

Judith, Laura, Rick and Nikki on board the Bark Europa

There are four of us here this year (Rick, Laura, Nikki and me) and we are living and working at the base for four months from early November until early March.

What is the base like?

View of Port Lockroy from Damoy Point

Goudier Island is a tiny island which takes about 20 minutes to walk around … at low tide! 

The island is purely rock and the base was constructed with timber and is supported by small pillars to create a level base!  The base was extended with additional rooms constructed over the period that it was operational. As you walk up the ramp to the front door (carefully side-stepping any penguins!), you arrive in a small porch where our guests are greeted with the first museum artefacts, old Fortnum and Mason skis, snowshoes and old fire extinguishers. Old waterproof and heavy wool jackets are hung up on pegs as you enter the hall where the small Royal Mail post box also resides. If you turn right, you will find yourself in the gift shop and post office (the ‘New Generator Room’). If you continue on along the hall you enter the old base and museum area.  This includes the old bathroom, the ‘Old Generator Room’ and workshop, a darkroom, a pantry, the old kitchen, lounge, radio room, the science room (home of the ‘Beastie’ or Ionosonde machine which was used for Ionospheric research) and of course the ‘bunk room’ where we eat, sleep, cook and relax today.  Each of these rooms and the cupboards and shelves therein are packed with artefacts that were found at the base during it’s restoration or which have been donated since by friends and family of those who worked here. We live alone on the island except for a rookery of c. 1300 gentoo penguins (plus 700 newly hatched chicks!) which chose the island as their home since the base was abandoned in 1962. The island itself is quite mucky and to quote Rick, ‘there’s no such thing as ‘mud’ at Port Lockroy’.  Think about it !

What kind of power/heating do we have?

In keeping with the history of the base, life is still very simple at Port Lockroy. We have a small Honda petrol generator and solar panels to charge laptop/camera and other batteries as well as four lights (two in the bunk room and two in the museum).  We use propane gas to power a small Hunter stove in the bunk room, and a small oven and two-burner cooker.  We use the stove for an hour or so at lunch-time or in the evenings to warm up, but in December and January it’s relatively mild and we don’t need it quite so often.  The rest of the base is not heated and with people coming and going all the time, we only turn the stove on if there’s sufficient time between visits to allow the room to heat up!  That said, when it’s cold and blowing a gale outside we are extremely grateful for it!

What kind of communications equipment do we have?

Communications are simple here but we’re not entirely shut off from the outside world.  We use HF and VHF radios to communicate with the ships and nearby expedition teams (and yes, I really do know how to use them) and we have a base laptop and Iridium satellite phone. We use this to send emails to the ships and family back home and also make calls home once every 2/3 weeks. We have no internet access here but we get snippets of news from visiting passengers and occasionally a summary newsheet from one of the ships.

Where do we sleep?

Much to the amusement of our guests we all cook, eat and sleep in the old bunk room.  It’s arranged so that there are four beds around the edges of the walls. We sleep on a cosy sheepskin throw (highly recommended and thank you Edinburgh Woollen Mill!) and tuck ourselves up at night inside two down sleeping bags (one inside the other) and a sleeping bag liner – a feat I never thought I would manage without getting completely tangled up, but seem to have mastered with ease .  At the beginning of the season it was a bit chilly despite all the padding so we used Sigg drinking bottles as hot water bottles. Water is precious here so we can’t afford to waste it in rubber hot water bottles. The trick is therefore to pour boiling water into the aluminium bottles and wrap them in a warm sock to absorb some of the heat.  In the morning we can still use the water for drinking, brushing teeth, etc – genius .

So where does our water supply come from?

We have eight 25L jerry cans which are filled with water by visiting ships.  We can’t unfortunately melt snow on this island because of all the penguins (!) and we can’t collect ice from the surrounding glaciers as we don’t have a boat!  Early in the season there was more sea ice around which occasionally washed up on the shore, however, it was rarely there when we needed it!  Rick has also taught us that it needs to be the right type of ice.  Ideally two years old and totally smooth and clear, like glass, with no fractures in it which allows salty, ‘penguiny’ water to seep in – nice!  Between us we typically get through 40L of water per day for drinking, cooking, washing up, etc.

How often do we get supplies?

Our supplies came down at the beginning of the season on a Hurtigruten ship called the Fram. They were doing an Arctic to Antarctic cruise and picked up our food, gift shop merchandise and maintenance supplies in Cork at the end of September and dropped them off here two months later.

How cold is it?

It’s currently a ‘balmy’ 11 degrees C in the bunk room, although I beg to differ as I’m wearing four layers and I’m still a bit cold!  On consultation with the girls, we think an average outdoor temperature is about five degrees.

How often do ships visit?

We have an average of two ships per day but we have had up to five!  There are IAATO (International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators) site guidelines for Port Lockroy stating that we can have up to 350 passengers visit per day with no more than 60 people on the island at any one time and of those, only 35 inside the historic hut.

What kind of ships come in?

Expedition ships range in size from private charters of 12 people to 350 passenger ships.  The average ship carries approximately 100 people. We also have visits from yachts who sail across the Drake with between 4-12 people.

What’s a typical day like?

We’ll get up about 7.30.  Rick and sometimes one of us girls will go on board the first ship to give a pre-landing briefing while everyone else gets everything sorted here. Passengers will arrive between 8-9am and a typical visit will last 2-3 hours while multiple groups explore the museum, visit the gift shop, write their post cards and have a look around the penguin colonies.  After everyone has gone we will quickly cash up, re-stock the shop and frank any mail we have not been able to see to during the visit (with 70,000 pieces of mail to be franked throughout the season, the secret is to stay on top of it!).  We’ll grab some lunch and by the time we finish the next ship is usually sailing into the bay. We’ll go on board and give another briefing and repeat the cycle again.  After the visit we’ll either be throwing clean clothes and toiletries into a dry bag to jump in a zodiac if we’re fortunate enough to be invited on board for dinner and a shower, or else it will be Port Lockroy, ‘Beer-o-clock’ .  During the day, whoever has five minutes will prepare lunch, do washing up etc, however in the evenings we have a rota. One of us will cook, one will wash-up, one will write the daily base diary to record what we’ve been up to and one person will have an evening off.  Given that life’s simple and everything takes a little longer than usual here, it’s normally about 9pm by then and we fall into bed at 10!  That’s our average routine, however there are many other activities that fill the day such as sorting out recycling to be packed up and sent out on ships, keeping on top of emails from UK AHT back home and ships scheduling/changing visits, franking mail and processing philatelic mail requests, continual identification and recording of artefacts, cash flow accounting in three currencies, not to mention the wildlife monitoring programme, i.e. counting penguins!

Do we do any research?

We no longer undertake scientific research here, however when the base was re-opened BAS started a penguin monitoring programme. Today Port Lockroy is one of, if not the most frequently visited tourist site in Antarctica and as such it’s an ideal place to monitor the potential impact of tourism on Antarctic wildlife. To do this we divide the island in two. On one side of the island is the hut and the area where guests can wander freely subject to the usual 5 metre rule*.  On the other side of the island a cord is drawn across and no-one enters that ‘control’ area, except to undertake the study. Throughout the course of our four months here we count the number of nests, then the number of eggs per nest, then the number of chicks that hatch, then the number of chicks that have survived by the end of the season.  As ‘Penguin Monitor’, this is Laura’s responsibility, however I am an extremely enthusiastic assistant . There are nine colonies on the island (four in the control area) and we compare the breeding success of the gentoos in each of those colonies with the numbers from the previous years.  So far the study has consistently found that the penguins on this side of the island, where the hut resides and passengers can wander relatively freely, have a higher breeding success. This could be due to a variety of factors, however we believe one of the key reasons to be that the penguins’ main predators, Skuas, prefer to prey on the gentoos in the quieter areas where there are less people around.

*IAATO visitor rules state that visitors to the Antarctic should wherever possible maintain a 5 metre distance from wildlife and should not make any sounds/movements which cause the bird/animal to alter it’s normal pattern of behaviour.

Speedy cook, Laura

As explained above, we take cooking in turns and what we eat depends on what’s about!  The ships are very good to us and often ask if there’s anything they can give us. Favourite requests are potatoes, onions, eggs and cheese!  We sometimes get cuts of meat too, so we really just get creative with whatever we have.  Rick cooks a mean curry, Nikki is our bread lady, Laura’s skill is cooking good food at speed (!)  and I am the roast potato queen.

What kind of wildlife is there?

Apart from the gentoos, we have the occasional visit by Adelie and Chinstrap penguins. We have many Weddell seals who snooze on Bill’s Island which we can walk to at low tide and there are two resident Leopard Seals who gobble up the gentoos on their

Snowy Sheathbills seen through the window

way home from fishing and chew holes in the occasional zodiac .  We’ve also seen Humpback Whales in the bay, but they don’t usually come so close to the island itself.

Do we have a boat?

No boat,  no time!

What do we do in our free time?

Life is great at Lockroy and we feel very privileged to be here, but free time is at a premium!  It took me two weeks to start this since my last blog entry and since starting this on 22 January, it’s taken me until 31 Jan to get to this point!  We do however read a few pages of a book before bed time and go for short walks just to see how our favourite penguin chicks are getting on!  We also brought a few DVDs each and every once in while we’ll have a ‘Port Lockroy cinema night’.  This is invariably on an evening when Laura has been doing the cooking and we’re all cleared up by about 7.30 .

What kind of things can people buy in the shop?

Gift Shop UK AHT, Port Lockroy

The shop is fab!  Guests are frequently amazed at all the goodies we have here, 95% of which are exclusive to the Trust.  The base is self-funded and as mentioned before, the continual maintenance and conservation of British historic huts such as Port Lockroy and others which the Trust will manage are funded by the proceeds of the shop. As such the Trust has spent a lot of time and effort over the course of the past 5 years developing the variety and quality of the merchandise to ensure it’s appealing to our guests.  Today, visitors can buy British Antarctic Territory stamps and First Day Covers, fleeces, all shapes, sizes and colours of teeshirts for all ages, a variety of hats and caps, neck buffs, Antarctic  tartan scarves, silk squares and neck ties (all sold out already!), BAT commemorative coins, books, puzzles, cross stitch kits, novelties such as pens, keyrings, cuddly gentoos, tea-towels, postcards, … you name it, we have it .. well almost!

How does the postal service work?

That brings me to my final and probably most frequently asked question, ‘what do we do with all the post?’.

After the mail is franked, banded and placed in Royal Mail bags, we send these to Stanley Post Office in the Falkland Islands on passing expedition ships.  Stanley Post Office places the bags on military flights (on average one per week) to Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, England, where the mail enters the UK postal system. We typically quote 2-6 weeks for delivery of post from Port Lockroy to it’s final destination. Inbound post follows the reverse route and we have received mail from the UK within two weeks of the postal date.  An excellent service indeed!

I hope that has shed a little more light on what we do here.  Now that that’s all cleared up I will likely return to telling you all about our latest escapades .

If you’re interested in reading more about the UK AHT and Port Lockroy, you may like to check out the following:

www.ukaht.org
The Story of Port Lockroy by Robert Burton
Southern Horizons by Robert Burton

So what have we been up to since New Year?  We spent the evening on board the M/V Professor Multanovskiy, but after the madness of the preceeding few days it was all we could do to keep our peepers open and make intelligent conversation with their guests until 11.00pm. The four of us then returned to Bransfield House in order that the crew responsible for the zodiacs could stand down and we saw in the New Year here with bubbly and Scottish ginger wine . 

After all the busy days and late nights around Christmas we’d pretty much worn ourselves out and each of us had picked up some ailment or other by New Year … which was unfortunate as the week ahead was chock-a-block with ship visits and we were expecting more yachts to show up unannounced any day.  As it transpired we had two ’no shows’ in a row which gave us just enough time to re-charge our batteries for Laura’s birthday on 2nd. We woke up to a beautiful sunny morning and Laura asked if we could have breakfast in our PJs on the terrace – who were we to argue?!  We then spent the morning finishing off painting the roof of the building (to weather-proof it for another austral winter) and re-stocking the shop to prepare for an evening visit by the M/V Fram which would be landing 240 passengers at 8.30pm.  Late afternoon was therefore dedicated to birthday festivities. We never quite managed a walk around Bill’s island but we did temporarily transform the shop counter into a make-shift bowling alley and set up our ‘Penguin Bowling’ pins.  It was absolutely hilarious!  (See photo in January Port Lockroy diary entry on the Trust website www.ukaht.org.)  We cheated slightly by lining the counter with thin strips of wood so that the marble ball wasn’t bouncing off the counter every five minutes, but somehow even with the kiddie-style boundaries we were still pretty rubbish!  Anyone who’s seen me bowl probably won’t believe this, but I actually won – woo hoo!  Thanks so much Lesley – that was a fab and very fun Christmas gift!

The Fram passengers  arrived promptly at 8.30 and it was a great visit, not least of all because Anja, the Expedition Leader had announced on the ship that it was Laura’s birthday and literally 70-80% of the passengers made a point of asking where she was and wishing her a happy birthday.  Some also brought her little gifts such as crisps and wasabi peas, the chef made her a beautifully decorated chocolate birthday cake, which was delivered ‘avec sparkler’ and the Captain sent over a bottle of Champagne!  It was so so nice of them and I think that all in all she (and by association, the rest of us) had a really fab day.

The 3rd was an exceptionally busy day with visits from FIVE vessels!  Definitely our busiest day of the season. We had two average sized expedition ships, one private charter on a small luxury expedition ship called the Hanse Exlorer and two yacht visits.  Despite having so many vessels however we were well within our IAATO site guide limit of 350 passengers per day.  Needless to say however it was quite intense!  The following days we had two more ships in, including the Polar Pioneer. At this point I’ve realised I forgot to tell you about their two fab British chefs (Graham and Andy), who pulled an absolute corker at the end of their last visit before Christmas.  As all the passengers were leaving, a zodiac returned to shore and they delivered us the most fantastic pizza I’ve ever tasted along with two tubs of home-made coleslaw!  Bless you Graham and Andy! This week we were invited on board for dinner and we were looking forward to another delectable treat.  It was a curry night with all the trimmings and I was actually delighted when my body warmer smelled of curry rather than penguin the following day .

I’ll finish this entry off by giving you another quick wildlife update. In the days which have passed since I wrote the Trust blog entry at the end of December, chicks have been hatching all over the island and growing at a phenomenal rate.  The first thing that happens is that their tummies swell out, then they seem to shoot up.  Bizarrely, the thing that has shocked me most is how quickly their feet grow!  They seem to triple in size in the space in the space of a couple of weeks. The colour of their fur also seems to even out a little over their heads and backs too and their tummies seem whiter, so they’re just little soft grey and white fur balls with big round tummies resting on their big clown big feet!  When they’re tiny they tend to nuzzle head first back into their parents brood pouch, but as they grow and no longer fit, in nests with two chicks they will often rest their heads and necks on one-another and their parents will protect them from the wind as best they can.

The Humpbacks have also continued to feed in the bay, so we’ve continued to indulge in a spot of whale-watching out the window and we still have plenty of Weddell Seals hanging out at Bill’s Island.

‘GUANO-GATE’

This finally brings me to ‘Guano-gate’ and the reason why I spent this afternoon cleaning poo off the rocks down by the boatshed!  On 7th January I had my closest encounter with Port Lockroy wildlife to date. We’ve been asked many times if we name the penguins and until very recently we could honestly say, ‘No, absolutely not, they all look the same and we’re not that soft’.  However, there are a couple of nests that we’ve kept a particularly close eye on since the chicks have hatched. One is ‘Fussball’ (football in German – in keeping with the international crowd that passes through here), Son/Daughter of ‘JCB’ (whose nest is the largest on the island, built with the most enormous stones that we can’t believe he managed to fit in his beak!).  Fussball is an only child and as such is reaping the benefits of all the krill his parents can pump into him/her.  He/she is absolutely enormous and spends most of every day sleeping off his last meal. Nevertheless, it’s always quite entertaining to see how fat he has become on any given day. So after the Corinthian II visit I was off to the boatshed to get some more supplies to make dinner and thought I’d just wander a tad further around the back of the boatshed to see how Fussball was getting on. Nothing major to report, he was sparko as usual, but as I turned to walk back down the smooth rock face I didn’t put 2 and 2 together that it was so slippy and landed very ungraciously on my bum in all the fishy penguin guano which had accumulated over the previous days – HEEEAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The only small saving grace is that I was wearing ‘over trousers’, but I still managed to get them, my fleece, my possum-fur ‘fingerless’ gloves and hence the tips of my fingers absolutely caked in it – nice!

So the reason why I washed all the poo away was to save anyone else (or more to the point, me) a similar (repeat) fate!  You’ll be pleased to hear Nikki got full photographic evidence and those photos will be posted to give you all a chuckle in due course .

P.S.  The photographs in Wildlife and Christmas and Happy New Year have only just arrived two days ago on CD from Judith.  I’ve selected some out of hundreds!  They don’t necessarily relate to the adjacent text as some were taken a few weeks ago, but hope you enjoy seeing a few of them.

Margaret (Judith’s Mum)

Well I guess I have to start by apologising in case it seems like I’ve been really slack and not kept you posted for the past three weeks, but the truth is we’ve been absolutely flat out and I suspect I might have been very unpopular with our guests and my team mates if I’d been writing blogs on the laptop!  The good news however is that I have LOADS to fill you in on.  Since writing my last blog I wrote one for the Trust – official company business – so, in the hope that you haven’t all already read that, I’m going to use some of that and fill you in on what else has been going on.

Since arriving at Port Lockroy we’ve loved following the progress of our gentoo neighbours as they chose their nest sites, pinched stones from one another and protected their precious eggs through the weeks of unusually wild weather we endured during the early part of this summer.  Along the way, some of the gentoos have lost eggs to the elements, predators or in some cases abandoned nests altogether.  However on 20th December when I wrote my last blog, we discovered our first chicks in a nest down by the old boat-shed.  Speaking with visiting expedition teams, we have learned that the chicks here at Goudier Island hatched considerably later than chicks in other nearby colonies, however we’re still four days ahead of when the first chicks were spotted here last year.

In the following days running up to Christmas, Laura and I took a wander around the island to check out what stage the rest of the nests were at.  We managed to find just eight nests in total with two chicks in four of them and one chick in each of the others. The majority of these were in the area around the boat-shed. This is one of nine colonies and is the lowest colony on the island. It therefore stands to reason that chicks in this area hatched first. The snow melted there earlier, allowing the gentoos to start collecting small pebbles from the shore to build their nests sooner, meaning the whole mating cycle was slightly further ahead than other colonies on the island. Typically, three days pass between mating and the laying of an egg and the incubation period is 35 days.  Each gentoo will typically try to lay two eggs and raise both chicks.

If a gentoo loses an egg, or worse still a clutch of eggs early in the season, it will re-lay and try again. In the early days most of the chicks were feeding really well and growing fast. When the parent wasn’t laying on them to protect them from predators and keep them warm, they were feeding or nuzzling into their parents wings and breast feathers.  When they first hatch gentoo chicks are around 10cm tall with long necks, cute faces and rounded tummies!  They have very soft looking downy fur (which isn’t waterproof at this age).  The fur is almost black on the top of their heads which becomes grey on their backs with a paler grey tummy and a white under-side on their long slim necks.  Each has the most adorable teeny black wings, an orange bill and over-sized orange flippers!  They grow at an alarming rate though and within two weeks they have more than doubled in size and are looking like their parent’s little mini-me’s.  The gentoos’ main predators are birds called Skuas and there are usually two or three around. They tend to perch on top of Bransfield House and the boat-shed and swoop around the colonies looking for unguarded eggs or a tasty looking Snowy Sheathbill!  Up until a couple of weeks ago, we watched them pinch eggs from time to time, but more recently they have started to pick off the odd chick and even two of the sheathbills. The sheathbills are ‘pigeon-sized’ white birds, which scurry around the gentoo nests feeding on their guano (poo) and would take a small chick if they had half a chance. The gentoos are pretty good at protecting their young though and hiss at them to shoo them away!  We have at least six breeding pairs of snowy sheathbills on the island and they all seem to have successfully created nests. Five of these are under the main building and one under the boat-shed. Rick explained that there’s usually a pair under the old whale skull by the boat-shed, but since this is where we discovered the grizzly remains of two sheathbills which had been preyed on by skuas, I think it’s fair to assume there will be no nest there this year :-/.

Right next to Goudier Island is Jougla Point. This is literally 30m or so from Goudier, but with no boat we can’t investigate that often. There are approximately 1200 breeding pairs of gentoos there but in amongst them are Blue Eyed Shags. Their chicks hatched approximately 3/4 weeks ago. We don’t get over there as often as we’d like, but we can see the shag chicks through binoculars and they’re now almost the same size as their parents. There is no way of confusing them though as instead of having the stunning black and white plumage and blue and yellow eye markings of their parents they are just huge brown fur balls with hungry beaks!

We have also had plenty of seals around Port Lockroy this season. In addition to the Leopard and Elephant seals I’ve mentioned before, we’ve also had as many as five Weddell seals basking in the sunshine at a time over on ‘Bill’s Island’ which we can wander over to at low tide. The most significant wildlife spot however has been the whales. Port Lockroy is a small, sheltered harbour just off the main Neumeyer Channel, which runs through the mountains along the west coast of the peninsula. Over the course of the past few weeks there have been many sitings of pods of whales in the channel itself, but it’s quite unusual for them to come into the bay.  However two Humpback whales have been gracing us with their presence. We can only guess that it’s an abundance of krill which has drawn them in. Whatever it is they’re very welcome to be here and we’re very happy to spot them out the shop window in between folding t-shirts and fleeces!

CHRISTMAS AT LOCKROY

After all of that you would almost be forgiven for thinking that Christmas had passed us by!  You needn’t worry though as we’ve been kept exceptionally busy and have been enjoying the festivities. Over the past two weeks we’ve had approximately 2,500 guests pass through Port Lockroy on 26 ships!  These have ranged from eight-passenger sailing yachts, to huge private marine vessels, to 250-passenger expedition ships, each carrying guests who just love to shop, send postcards and party!  Needless to say we’ve been happy and willing to oblige on all fronts and the dinner cooking rota was temporarily (and metaphorically) thrown out the window! We’ve really enjoyed the company of all the expedition teams, crews and their guests who have as usual been very good to us. Christmas Eve was spent on board the Polar Star where we enjoyed a lovely Christmas dinner, a guest-led Christmas play with audience participation, which had us weeping with laughter for all the wrong reasons (!) as well as salsa dancing and karaoke!  On Christmas Day we hosted visits from two ships, the Antarctic Dream and the beautiful three-masted Dutch sailing ship, the Bark Europa. Christmas lunch between ship visits consisted of oven roasted chipolata sausages, fried eggs and champagne before we made phone calls to family and sat down to some serious gift opening. Thank you to everyone who sent us all so many lovely cards and thoughtful gifts. It’s not so easy being away from loved ones at Christmas but we were really touched by everyone’s generosity and thoughtfulness. We were delighted to receive not one, but TWO ‘Penguin Bowling’ sets between us, which have already been put to very good use:-).

Another big thank you to Ann Lennox of the WI, who I met on hols in Sicily this year. Once Ann heard that I was off to Antarctica she offered to make some warm woolly hats for the team here and true to her word I received these before I headed south. They were all lovely colours and I thought it would be fun to save them as an extra little gift for everyone on Christmas Day. They went down a storm, so thank you Ann and all your friends at the WI .  Corresponding pics will be hopefully be on the blog soon!

After the visit by Bark Europa we had a short while to chill out and enjoy a power nap before joining the guests on board for dinner. For anyone who was concerned by the sound of our ‘Christmas Lunch’ you needn’t worry as a treat was in store!  The Bark is a small sailing vessel with approximately 35 guests so they have two cosy dining areas. We were seated downstairs in an oak panelled dining room with a flat screen TV showing a DVD of a roaring fire!  Dinner was Krill (penguin food!) wrapped in a pancake, followed by South African kudu, ostrich and springbok kebabs grilled on the BBQ. For all those of you who know me well, clearly the Krill wouldn’t have been my first choice, but I somehow managed to eat it and the rest of the meal was delicious !

Since Christmas we’ve had at least two ship visits per day.  Despite being exceptionally busy, the weather between Christmas and the New Year was absolutely amazing and we even managed our first ‘Port Lockroy Plunge’ of the season.  Between Christmas and New Year we also enjoyed a night out with some expedition staff to Damoy Point, another old British base in the bay adjacent to Port Lockroy. The base is now kitted out as a refuge hut and everyone keeps coming in and telling us how fabulous it is so we were keen to see it for ourselves. The old hut is amazing, complete with fully fitted kitchen (think 1960’s Antarctic hut, not Moben!), dining area and old bunk room. There’s even a darts board, a stash of Jack Daniels and ‘Emergency Baileys’!  We trekked up the snow hill (where we realised how unfit we had become living on tiny Goudier Island) and took in the breathtaking view across the bay and back down onto Port Lockroy.  Definitely a fun night out and one we’ll remember for a long time.