Well Hello people,
Time for another blog and I'm thinking to start with this time I'm going to go back a little in time to when I was still on the ship and show you a video that I have finally finished on King Neptune. I had mentioned in Blog 2 that I had been working on a video of the Neptune ceremony but LONG STORY.
I'll start by explaining this long story with something some people would have never in a million years though i would EVER say. I'm going to ditch the PC and change to a Mac when I get home. I have been having so many issues editing that videos and in particular this one of King Neptune that its has turned me off PC's. I had been fighting it for the last couple months but now its decided needs to be done. But to cut the long story short from 9pm last night to nearly 1am with a little creative thinking i managed to get it done. All this for you Mrs Snoozy, the things and the lengths I go through for you..............so here it is the LONG awaited King Neptune video.
Video Michael Goldstein
Jumping forward, back to this week on Tuesday Francis and myself were given the opportunity to go up in the Twatter. No I'm not swearing at you a Twatter is what the Canadians call a Twin Otter. This season we are using a Canadian Company by the name of Kenn Borek who supply a majority of the countries planes down here. Bob and Al are our trusty pilots who we meet last season when they were called in to cover the CASA 212 plane that went down. So Bob has done about a million seasons south then he goes home and fly up in the Arctic too.
Anyway getting a little off track.............Tuesday we get our stuff together and make our way down to the sea ice ski way where the plane would be landing still not totally sure where we are going. The plane was on its way back from Beaver Lake which is the other side of the Amery Ice shelf. Last week Jumpin John Harris went over there to do a little clean up and he did a little story about his adventure which you can see HERE.
So we were out on the Skiway waiting for the plane to arrive back from the same place bringing more rubbish back to station with the dieso duo of Jo and Jose on board. After unloading the plane into a sling as it could be slung under a chopper and taken back to station we loaded up 5 drum's of fuel for future flights to go on further. Sansom Island here we come here is a little vid of the flight.......
Video Michael Goldstein
Here are a couple pics from that flight that i though would be with seeing again..........
Pic Michael Goldstein
Little bit of open water
Pic Michael Goldstein
Nice burgs grounded on one of the many banks there are around here.
Pic Michael Goldstein
Pic Michael Goldstein
The canvassed edge of the Amery Ice shelf there is lots of interesting reading here..........
This one is about drilling the Amery in 09-10 http://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-us/publications/australian-antarctic-magazine/2006-2010/issue-19-2010/amisor-understanding-the-ocean-beneath-the-ice
Pic Michael Goldstein
Pic Michael Goldstein
Pic Michael Goldstein
Pic Michael Goldstein
These ice caves were incredible to see.............They are MASSIVE too, Bob (twatter pilot) thinks the chopper would be able to fly through them they are that big!!!!
Pic Michael Goldstein
The Xue Long (CHINARE Chinese Antarctic Research Expedition i think???) parked up in the ice as we were doing their resupply at Zhong Shan which is located about 100km South East of here and 2km from Progress 2 (Russian) both stations are maned year round.
Pic Michael Goldstein
Pic Michael Goldstein
Here is the summer only Russian station we flew over again and youll see the red box is the one ive blown up and the yellow ones are more of the same tracked vehicles.
Pic Michael Goldstein
Pic Michael Goldstein
Russian fuel cans I do hope with their injection of money into their Antarctic endevours that they spend some on clean up!!! Same thing red box is the one ive blown up.
Pic Michael Goldstein
Pic Michael Goldstein
Some of you might have heard about the accident we had down here. My heart goes out to her firstly that this is one place that a researcher loves to come to as the place is so untouched. Secondly so much work is done in the lead up to an expedition like the one she was on in and incredible location in the Prince Charles Mountains only to have it cut short by an injury.
Injurys down here be it serious or not quickly become life threatening by the nature of the climate we are faced with everyday. Lyeing injured on the gound back home not much is going to happen. However here the ground sucks the warmth out of you VERY quickly and depending on temprature and wind conditions you become hypothremic. Add to this you could be 3-4-5-6-7 hours away from any decent medical facilities the situation becomes dire. The evac from Prince Charles Mountains was done in the Twatter and is somewhat covered HERE right at the bottom of the page.
Not going to dribbel on any more today think ive given you all enough to keep you all quiet for another week.
So untill then...............................
Take care,
Goldie
P.S.................... "Being broke is a temporary situation. Being poor is a mental state."
Mike Todd
Mike Todd
Once again you hve enightened people to the true Antarctica, with the beauty and the dangers that we all face when we go south. keep up the good work mate. Fantastic photos. Well worth spending the extra money on that camera I say.
ReplyDeleteBloody ripper bro.