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Day 16 January 12th 2009
Last night we slept out in the Antarctic
Peninsula on an island in Leith Cove whose latitude and longitude are: 64.48.23.8 South and 62.52.21.8 West (approximately 100 miles north of the Antarctic Circle).
We got there by zodiac from the Ioffe and with only one seal, a number of penguins and a few other intrepid travellers for company,
the first thing was a briefing on how to construct a snow hole.
Having donned snow shoes, dig a grave shaped hole (we dug a two person grave) pointed in roughly the direction from which you expect the wind/ snow / rain to come .
Put the excavated snow across the head of the hole so that the strong katabatic winds (which can arise at any time) are deflected over the top of the hole. Tamp the snow down whilst wearing the snow shoes so it is firm and flat.
Place the floor mat inside a bivvy bag and the sleeping bag on top of the floor mat (also inside the bivvy bag.
"Is this really a good idea?" wonders Pat.
Take as many clothes off as you want to, stuff them inside the bivvy bag with your
sleeping bag so that they do not get wet and get inside.
We got some (but not a lot of) sleep during the night and it was not too cold - hovering just below zero. Throughout the night there was the sound of avalanches nearby and glaciers calving although we did not have to worry about the resultant tsunami because we were way above the water line.
Mrs Yum-Yum got some use during the night. Although an outside loo with very bare facilities
the view when you looked out of the window was magnificent.
The view at dawn was quite something, and certainly very few people have seen dawn from where we were. Dawn however is a slightly incorrect concept here because although it got slightly less bright during the night, it was light enough to read by the whole night.
We were rescued around 6 am and after breakfast and a hot shower, spent the morning in bed.
Overall, we thought this was a very special and amazing thing to do, but not something for every night!
We are both given a certificate to commemorate our courage
This says: "This certificate is awarded to Paul (Patricia) Harvey in order to honour the adventurous spirit that inspired you to spend the night on the ice in Leith Cove off the Antarctic Peninsula".
This afternoon we are going to Port Lockroy which lies on the western side of Wiencke Island in the Palmer Archipelago and is comprised of Jougla Point and Goudier Island. Goudier Island is home to a restored British Antarctic Survey (BAS) hut, Bransfield House. The hut was occupied between 1944 and 1962 and research carried out at this site focused on surveying the region and its geology, meteorology and botany. After 1950 this switched to ionospheric research. At Jougla Point there is a large gentoo penguin colony and a colony of shags. A reassembled baleen whale skeleton can also be found close to the landing site.
We are now leaving the region of large bergs and looking outside of the window we can see one of our last large bergs.
From now on it will be bergy bits and brash and in a few hundred miles, just cold sea.
The approach to Port Lockroy (64 49s 63 30w) is through the Neumeyer Channel which is very spectacular -
lots of moody mountains with a heavy sky. The base has been restored as a museum to
the work of early Antarctic scientists and showing how they lived. It is open to any passing public for around four months a year. It is also the southern most public British Post
Office in the world - passing ships such as the Ioffe pick up mail and take it to Stanley in the Falkland Islands for onward transmission.
Nearby Jugla Point has yet more Gentoo penguins, here showing how they seem to spend most of their life collecting stones (Love Rocks)
both small and large to put on the nest of their loved one. They also steal stones from nearby nests. The chicks here are much
further on than those we have seen further south.
On the beach is an assembled skeleton of a
whale, created to show us how big one is.
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