Last Thursday afternoon I had the pleasure of being invited along by a few of the guys to visit the Browning Peninsulat the south of Casey. Our SCTO (Comms officer) had to make a pre-winter inspection of the Channel 21 VHF radio repeater on top of the highest point on the Peninsula itself, and was heading out with our Instrument Technican and our Bureau of Meteorology Technical Officer (BoM Met Tech)
Naturally, with my freshly issued Hagglunds licence in hand, I jumped at the opportunity to go and explore the local area.
A windy foggy morning cleared to a spectacular bluebird day, and we set out at about 1400hrs in the afternoon. It didn't take long for the antics to begin, as we set upon taking all photos of the trip, of each of us taking photos of each other, on the trip. Confused yet?
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| Snapping a quick pic on the A-line. Photo: Mark Grainger |
The bright but low afternoon sun displayed a spectacular halo through the cirrostratus clouds. The sunlight dancing off the snow twinkled like diamonds as we forged along in our Yellow Hagg, with me at the wheel. (Such trusting fellow expeditioners I have!). We all wear headsets in the Hagg so that we can talk to and hear each other, but we can also play music through them as well to liven up the trip. Yes, I am considerate enough to turn my mic on mute before I sing along, and the Hagg is so noisy that no one else can hear you sing anyway!
We move around the Station operating area on set routes, and we navigate the Haggs along these routes by GPS and Radar. There is a high dgree of certainty that there are no crevasses along out GPS routes, and we stay within 15 metres of this GPS line at all times, lest we wander off into a 'slot'.
The A-line which connects Casey to the Wilkins Aerodrome is a well forged path, and is so well packed that it is our Station equivalent of a super highway. Before long we turned off onto the B-line headed for Brownings. We bounced our way along the frozen sastrugi, and our speed reduced accordingly.
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| Halos and high cloud. Photo: Jacque Comery |
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| Yellow Hagg. Photo: Jacque COmery |
We approached the Browning Hut after a three hours drive not long before sunset, and after parking the Hagg into the wind for the night, we dumped our packs in the hut, and scampered off over a few local hills to watch the sunset upon the ice cliffs of the Vanderford Glacier. It was a chilly minus 13C, and colder with a significant wind chill.
The views were breathtaking, and the golden light of the late afternoon played upon the wind blown snow in the most specatcular way. A few photos and many memories captured we headed back to the hut.
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| Mark and I checking out the Vanderford. Photo: Simon Jodrell |
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| Me and the Vanderford Glacier. Photo: Simon Jodrell |
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| Sastrugi in the setting sunlight. Photo: Jacque Comery |
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| Sunset on the Browning. Photo: Jacque Comery |
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| Vanderford Glacier. Photo: Jacque Comery |
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| Last light. Photo: Jacque Comery |
After dinner, some games and a few beers, we all crawled into our bunks and slept soundly!
We awoke the next day to an outside temperature of minus 18C, and minus 13C inside the cold porch of the hut. I was smart enough to sleep with my drink bottle and batteries in my sleeping bag, but left my boots in the cold porch to freeze. Rookie error.
