Monday, December 29, 2008
During my three-day stay at Cape Royds I had plenty of opportunity to spend time in Shackleton’s Nimrod hut. It was built for the 1907-1909 British Antarctic Expedition, which was a lot smaller than Scott’s expedition that followed it (see Terra Nova hut below). There were only 16 men in this party hence the Nimrod hut is a lot smaller than the Terra Nova hut. It looked more interesting on the outside perhaps because it was small/compact and had better proportions and there were interesting objects right around the building itself. On the other hand it had much fewer objects and variety of spaces on the inside. It is impossible to represent in photographs the feeling of actually standing in these spaces. I am very grateful for the opportunity to spend time in the Nimrod and Terra Nova huts.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Below are some pictures of Scott's Terra Nova hut, Cape Evans. This hut was built for Scott's ill fated Terra Nova expedition (1910-1913) and was later used by Shackleton as well in an expedition that also lost three men. You can find plenty of information and images on line about the Terra Nova hut. These are just a few of my pics. I was so fortunate that on my way back from Cape Royds to McMurdo station the helicopter pilot was able to land with me at Cape Evans. We were the only people there. I had checked out the hut key and was able to spend an hour in the presence of frozen history. The pilot was also able to point out some hidden treasures (notes written in pencil on the wall next to one bunk by one of the men from the Shackleton expedition listing the dead). - When you are looking at this blog please remember that images are quickly pushed into the “old blogs” section since they don't fit on the front page so please look in “old blogs” even for new images. Also if you click on an image you get a larger version. Please stay tuned for more tomorrow.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
December 16 and 17 I took part in the "happy camper" survival training. This is a required course if you plan to leave McMurdo station and travel anywhere in Antarctica. They teach you how to survive in case there is an emergency (a helicopter crash and such) and you have to create your own shelter from snow and other available materials to survive. They give you various scenarios and you have to improvise to find solutions. Since I am not much of an adventurer to begin with I learnt an awful lot (including how to set up tents correctly, which probably most people already know). I think my fellow campers must have concluded that I would not be the best asset in a crisis situation but I did show talent for one activity: sawing perfect snow blocks. While this was highly admired I think it only has aesthetic value. I had a great time and actually slept quite well that night in a large Scott tent seen in some of the images below.
Some of our fellow campers who work as firefighters on McMurdo decided to dig a dining table and benches out of snow, which is where we sat and ate our dinner. The weather was splendid all the way until 9 PM right when we finished dinner. At that point the wind picked up and kept the tents shaking throughout the night.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Today I followed some scientists onto the ice to document their launch of an underwater robot created by 8th graders. They brought a school teacher with them to Antarctica and her students had modeled their robot (called Sarah) after one that was created by these scientists and photographs the bottom of the ocean floor. Sarah floated too close to the surface but on a TV attached to her you could see the ice, bubbles and moving water that she filmed.
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