Polar Bird, Saturday, 1st December 2001
At last, we finally arrived off Davis Station this morning. The previous gales had broken 2km of fast ice off the Ingrid Christensen coast off Davis, enabling the ship to get within 4km of the shore thus making fuel resupply possible. The 6,400 ton ship cut a deep wedge at the edge of this 2m thick ice, as firm and unyielding as concrete. The previous day's blizzard had also covered everything with 20cm of snow. The ship's cranes swung into action taking out the other helicopters, containers and pallets. Hagglunds (tracked amphibuous vehicles), trucks and utes were frentic moving goods and people to and fro the station. Others spent time walking around the edge of the fast ice to adjoining Gardner Island to photograph the prolific Adelie penguins. These penguins were also very curious, often coming close to people and cargo to examine proceedings. We caught a Hagglunds across the ice up to the station, but we didn't get much of a chance to look around before we loaded up five quad bikes and three sleds with all the necessary gear for three days field training. We headed off in the direction of Rookery Lake past many grounded bergs of blue ice cemented into the sea ice. Hundreds of penguins waddled or waggled around us, a few Weddel Seals in their slumber, resting near where they break through weak spots in the ice. Hopefully we wouldn't find any of these ! We skeded (radioed) at 1900hrs. Rookery Lake is a major Adelie penguin colony, with thousands of birds. We went for a little walk over some shattered rocks to check out an Apple Hut, before taking turns to lead our way through the fjords to Brookes Hut. Map reading was initially difficult and confusing, because distances to the topographic features are very difficult to ascertain being devoid of any vegetation (other than a few lichens) and also due to the exceptinally clear air. We hit 60 ks across the ice to Brookes Hut. This hut was exceptionally cosy, just like any back country hut in oz or New Zealand. We dined ravenously on pasta and tuna, with Martin bringing a good Brown Brothers red to wash it down with. A very good start to field training ! The log book made interesting reading, going back to 1990 with an entry by Paul Tregoning in early 1992.
Brookes Hut, Vestfold Hills S 68°32'31" E 78°11'29"
10 km ENE of Davis
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