Out and about in spud wood Cheshire ...

[snowman]

Tom was base engineer but as everyone had to double up he is qualifed coxswain so used to cox the rib and other boat at KEP.these pics are from Rothera,will have to look for the KEP ones.

[GDL]

WOW!

[mel]

Hi Snowman ( i get your user id now )

Great pics , awesome views .

You wrote

" Tom was base engineer but as everyone had to double up he is qualifed coxswain so used to cox the rib and other boat at KEP.these pics are from Rothera,will have to look for the KEP ones. "


Sorry to be thick but what was going on in the pics , the ice tunnel and the tents ?

Cheers

Mel

[bowsaw]

I think they are glaciologists going about their day job

Tents are normally a home and work site when away from the home base, they are best put up in advance rather then when the weather closes in and they need them

Rothera on the mainland is fortunate in that planes can get in when the conditions are OK, but the King Edward Point base is out in South Georgia is only reached by boat, and from there they go out to places like bird island a very remote and steep bit of rock that can result in being stuck out until the weather subsides,

The weather can definitely whip though, I would often use climbing harness to tie myself in position on the rail of the boat

[snowman]

Hi Mel these pics are from Rothera on the ice shelf in Antarctica ,as bowsaw says it has runway

the tents and sleeping trench is just them having time off exploring the ice caves,

as there is not much else to do on your day off,maybe a little snowboarding,
,
when he was at King Edward Point ( KEP ) there was no runway or vehicles just a JCB to help unload ships as it is an island,as only around 8 staff overwinterd at KEP everyone had to double up so Tom ( tech/engineer ) also was a boat coxwain as KEP provided boats well ribs for fishery protection officers from the Falklands and there own transport for scientefic work. am i making this worse ??

[mel]

Hi Snowman

Got it thanks

[snowman]

i have now found the KEP pics so here are a few,there is old whaling station there and plenty of wildlife,please ask if you would like any more.

[bowsaw]

Just after I was there there was a massive landslide from the hill that features in the foot shot, it took a large part of that hill down towards the church and the blubber works and buried the football pitch

As i understand not that the rat eradication program is drawing to a close the reindeer are next in line to be removed as they struggle to remove the species that were used as food by the British and Norwegian whalers and the stowaways, there are also a lot of non native plant species that hopped a lift down there, and on arrival you have to go through bio screening to try and limit the addition of new species, on some of the islands Velcro is banned as it makes such a good seed carrier

I took a lot of pics there, and would love to go back, well worth the slight frost bite I picked up on the last day of our season there.

[snowman]

Yes for the rat eradication they were using helicopters to drop bait while Tom was there,had to have your bags screened for non native seeds and such,not sure how that worked when the cruise ships called to go penguin and seal watching .

[mel]

Stunning

Will have a google of the location over the weekend to learn more about it .

Whats with the rusty ship is it still in service ? or just showing salt errosion ?