At 0730hrs, SCTO Clint was already on the job, offering us coffee in our bunks and reheating pies that we brought along from Station for breakfast. By 0800hrs we completed our radio sked back to Station, packed up the hut, (put on our frozen boots - well that was just me!) and
set out to climb the hill to the repeater.
Piling back in the yellow hagg, we set off after giving it a good warm up. I was back in the drivers seat, having clearly not sufficiently terrified everyone the day before.
We parked up at the base of the hill, and then scrambled up the rocky, snowy slopes to where the repeater was installed. A small space case and two solar panels comprising our radio link back to Station.
The view from the top whilst only 112 m above sea level was dramatic. We could see all the way
out across Penney Bay to the Williams Nunatak.
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| Browning Hut. Photo: Jacque Comery |
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| Yellow Hagg all parked up on the ice at the hut. Photo: Jacque Comery |
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| View from the repeater. Photo: Jacque Comery |
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| The view over the Windmill Islands. Photo: Jacque Comery |
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| The Hagg parked at the base of the hill. Photo: Jacque Coemry |
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| Ready to roll. Photo: Simon Jodrell |
After scrambling back down we then drove down to the frozen sea ice edge at GPS point
B-11, and donned our packs to hike to the north -east side of the peninsula in search of an elephant
seal wallow. Clint had never seen an elephant seal, and the group that came out last week failed to find any, so we were full of anticipation.
We took the long way around
sticking to the shore line, as the sea ice is still only just forming. Large tide
cracks were evident, and the ice crackled and popped as we walked along the
shore line in the still air. This was
the first time that I had ever heard the sea ice crack. Intriguing and
disconcerting all at once! Hoping to see one or two seals we were treated to at
least thirty sub-adult males in various stages of moulting on the shore. The
familiar elephant seal smell had me missing Macquarie Island.
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| Hiking along the frozen shoreline beside the tide cracks. Photo: Mark Graine |
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| Checking out the elephant seals midway on our hike. Photo: Mark Grainger. |
After a few hours of hiking we returned to the Hagg and set
out retracing our track for the 3 hour drive to Station.
The things that stay with me from this trip: Antarctica is
most definately as dramatic and striking as you could imagine; skiiing across
Antarctica over frozen sastrugi would be the worst! (big kudos to anyone who's done it!!); it sucks when your
water bottle freezes; and finally, this continent should not be white on the
map. It should be blue. The exposed ice that we passed over for most of the
journey was a smooth polished ice of a most beautiful pale aquamarine blue, and
not the endless white snow covered ground i was expecting.
Every part of this experience is amazing, and all I can do
is just soak it up.
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| The Brownings Repeater trip crew. Clint, Simo, Mark and Jac. Photo: Mark Grainger |
