Saturday 28 May 2011

Don’t let kids have all the fun!

Whilst the campers were away we weren’t going to miss out on our own fun with the snow. Not enough for skiing we made do with sledging instead. Cheap plastic pulks make excellent fast adult sized sledges, some for 2+ people too. Being a mountainous place the trickiest part was finding a slope that didn’t have ‘PAIN’ or ‘BROKEN BONES’ written all over it! Fortunately the nursery ski slopes behind Grytviken are ideal, assuming you avoid the deep ditch and stream handily positioned at the end of the run off area. Have a look at the photos and enjoy the video put together from headcams, and an SLR by our base mechanic Matt Holmes.
 20110515-DSC_7192 Keeping control just about!
20110515-DSC_7194 Matt Holmes and me getting some good speed
 20110515-DSC_7219 Robert the Government Officer enjoying the snow too
 20110515-DSC_7231-sledge Matt not stopping before the ditch!
 20110515-DSC_7246 Katie giving the skeleton bob technique a go


And as Sue ‘face plant’ Gregory so well said:
“Growing old is compulsory, growing up is optional”

Happy birthday Katie

20110510-DSC_6578_79_80_81_82_83_84_tonemappedAs it was Katies birthday earlier this month I though I’d start this blog entry off for my bestest science buddy!

Katie asked if we could go camping for her birthday, so we decided on the sealers cave at Maiviken. We hoped that the view from the cave might be nice for sunrise, and it would be a different place to spend the evening some time. It also tied in nicely with work so I could collect seal scats the following day on the way back!

Having walked over to Maiviken hut we picked up some waste wood for a campfire and headed down to the cave. It was breezy but a nice afternoon and we walked along the beach so I could collect some scats. As we were doing this it started to snow, that put a stop to my work burying 20110510-DSC_6587everything! I made a nice campfire in the cave entrance, and we sorted out or sleeping bags, thermarests and bivvy bags on the sleeping platform inside the cave; which incidentally has a door and window, properly hobbit style!

After an evening chatting, having dinner and a bottle of red it was time for bed. The cave was surprisingly warm, much warmer than being in a tent for certain.

The following day there was a fresh couple of inches of snow, so my work was out the window. The walk back however was really nice, everywhere always looks beautiful with a covering of snow I think. It wasn’t so deep as to require snow shoes, although we did find the occasional deeper drift to sink into. The walk back down bore valley was very nice, and the sun was shining too. We strolled back into base ready to work the day having had a great night away from base, and a chance to recharge our batteries away from the usual busyness of base.

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