Fossil Bluff

A week off Station

New Year's Day was a busy one for me as i was the chef on duty to do Sunday Brunch and Sunday Dinner. It started well with hardly anyone around due to the night before, I wondered just how many people I would see coming in for lunch?  I was quite surprised to see the majority of the station queuing quite early. I was also surprised when James Wake the Field operations Manager asked me if I would be willing to go into the field for a few days to help Jake our GA at Fossil Bluff. I was not going to say no!

Fossil Bluff is one part of a network of nine automatic weather stations on the Antarctic Peninsula run by BAS. The Bas met teams collaborates with scientists from all over the world to ensure we have the best possible coverage of Antarctica in order to meet the needs of the scientific and forecasting communities. 

I was to fly out on the Monday morning, so it was necessary to prepare a P-bag which is a personal bag filled with a sleeping system and warm gear for the field, plus anything else that will make my experience a pleasant one, such as music, books and films not to mention thermals, toiletries and a change of essentials.

Monday morning soon came and after the pilots briefing it was off to load the plane and away we went. My pilot for the journey was Mark Beasley, I was the co-pilot and was to be dropped off along with 3 full fuel drums. Once there, I was to replace David williams who was heading back to Rothera, we unloaded the plane, then filled it with fuel and loaded 3 empty fuel drums on board along with all Dave's kit and any waste that had to go back.

 All checks complete, ready for take off

 All clear, full throttle and we are away

 From above Rothera you can see the Ice is clear 

enough for the JCR to get in

The views as we approach Fossil Bluff are amazing!

Once on the ground It's all hands on deck to unload

We unloaded, loaded and re-fuelled then stood back

as they made their way to the skiway

we waved them goodbye as the Twin Otter powered

up and took gracefully to the sky

We Packed away the generator and the fuel pump and tidied the heavy fuel drums before making our way on a skidoo to the apple hut , which is where we work from when doing weather observations, or any skiway repairs. The weather obs are done every hour on the hour when planes are in the air, either to and from fossil Bluff or on their way further south to Sky Blu or any of the other sites that scientists are in. Fossil Bluff is a weather and fuelling station.

 Inside the hut is home from home, with a kettle that we fill with snow and boil on a primus stove. We then use this water to make either hot drinks or to prepare meals using the ration packs from the man food boxes. Each box contains enough food to keep one man sustained for 10 days.

 Here we are having Macaroni Cheese. Just fill with water and leave to stand for 10 minutes, These meals are really not bad at all and in all boxes there are treats like chocolate beans, sesame nut brittles, Jams and peanut butter and one or two other delights.

These are Biscuit browns, which is like a cheese cracker that 

you can have sweet or savoury. we are spreading these with 

Jam and peanut butter

This is the radio used for speaking to Rothera to give

weather observations

Jake writing down the weather observations

The weather observation form.

Once we know there are no more planes coming through and we have given the hourly weather observation, we can leave the skiway and make our way back to Bluebell Cottage, which was going to be my home for the next 7 days and getting there was no walk in the park. The cottage which I believe was built in the 60's sleeps 4 in the main part with a little room attached housing 2 more beds and an emergency caboose which sleeps 2 more. To get to it you have to cross a lake which are pools of melt water on the surface, these are usually frozen and normally you can get the skidoo more or less to the front door. however, these last few weeks the temperatures have been quite high and most of the surface areas around the cottage is very much deep water.

A bridge was constructed early on in the season, but that is now no longer feasible, so we have to walk along the side of the mountains creating a footpath.

We take the skidoo as far as the flag, which was put there to mark the safest place to cross the water giving us access to the best path home for the night. Here we have pulled a sledge with things that need to be carried to the cottage, as if the walk wasn't bad enough carrying nothing. We put a cover over the skidoo and tuck it in for the night before starting our 40 minute walk.

The first steps towards the cottage

This is to give an idea of the different temperatures. The footprint in the middle was the first thing in the morning when the ground is hard and icy. Then later that day when it's time to go home, it gets very soft and you sink.

Jake walking ahead with the lake to the right and the 

cottage in front of him.

Bluebell Cottage nestled into the foot of the mountain

The lake with the bridge that we can't use in the distance.

The ice formations on the lake are stunning.

A look back at the parked skidoo by the flag

From rock to snow

We eventually get to a flowing stream of glacier Ice which is where we get our fresh water from, this flows into the lake helping to keep it topped up, this picture was taken early evening as it is free flowing with no Ice.

                                            This is the same stream early in the morning, 

                                                     with lovely ice crystals all over it

We eventually make it to Bluebell cottage, where the reflex is constantly on and the kettle constantly hot. We get out of our gear make a cup tea and sit on the balcony for a while listening to the silence while looking out into the wilderness, knowing that there is not a living soul for thousands of square miles.

                                                      Bluebell Cottage  

                                                                                                 

The main cottage has amazing views all round and you never get bored of the scenery that greets you every time you step onto the balcony. behind the cottage is the generator shed, which gets turned on every so often to charge equipment and give light. Although we used the tilly lamps to light the room as it also gave quite a bit of heat. The small blue box in the foreground is an emergency caboose, which has two beds inside and is still used once in a while.

 One of me taking in the views

View from the balcony with the flag and no wind

Inside we have the kitchen sink and a tank of water

The reflex heater and stove, with the kettle just boiling

The communications corner, where you still have to give

weather observations

Arkwrights store, this is basically the pantry

A few pots and pans, cereals, tea, coffee, herbs etc.

Cooking on the primus stove, you can see four bunk 

beds behind me and the table we eat from.

My view from the kitchen window.

We sat down to hearty potato and cabbage broth 

with carrots, pearl barley and some home made bread.

A few fossils on display found in the surrounding area.

 Outside the cottage is a mound with an old muskegg

on the top as a monument, these vehicles where used 

to get around in before skidoos. 

This muskegg is kept in the old garage at the bluff 

as a museum piece now

 This is the inside of the emergency caboose, It could

be quite comfortable considering the conditions outside

On Friday evening, myself and Jake were told that we were being picked up from Fossil Bluff and taken back to Rothera, as the JCR was finally coming in for relief and we were needed. We were to be replaced by Maz, our meteorologist and Nelly, our Genny Mech. They were flown in on Saturday so there were four of us staying at Bluebell Cottage that night. I did a Saturday night curry followed by cheese and biscuits, it was a good night with good conversation and a few laughs. The following day, we got to the skiway with our P-bags, personal bags and waste and waited for vicky to fly in to pick us up. Once vicky was on the deck we refuelled the plane, loaded it and headed back to base.

 Maz and Nelly with jake on the skidoo

 The Twin Otter being refuelled

 Pumping the fuel to the aircraft

 Fuel drums and the Twin Otter

 Vicky coming to a stop.

A selfie on my way back to Rothera.

It was a great week and a great experience, definitely one to be repeated! I am now back at Rothera and back into the full swing of life on base. I have been busy organising shelves and space in Old Bransfield getting ready to stock and store our provisions which will be coming off the JCR tomorrow.  RELIEF STARTS NOW !!! Bring on the freshies