"If you identified with the kids from The Breakfast Club when it came out, you're now much closer to the age of Principal Vernon." -- XCKD 973

I'm currently back in Europe, after a couple of flights taking me from Cuzco to Madrid. I spent a week in Madrid, trying to learn a bit more Spanish and re-immersing myself in Euro-culture again. (Grunts aren't accepted as communication here, it seems!). The Spanish I'd picked up in Peru seems to give me a few strange looks when I try to speak it in Spain.

I'd spent around 3 weeks using Cuzco as a base, and I'd grown quite attached. It's a very tourist friendly place, and there are a number of opportunities to get out and do some interesting things. For a price, of course.

The Plaza de Armas in Cuzco

Looking down on the city from the mountains

Becca had come out to meet me for a couple of weeks, and I had persuaded her to join me on some Via Ferrata, a climbing system where metal rungs have been permanently installed into the rock, along with safety lines, bridges etc. We spent the day climbing up the system, before rappelling off, and back to the ground. This was near the town of Urubamba in the Sacred Valley, so the views from high up were amazing.

A couple of days later we set off on a 4 day trek of the Lares Valley, north of Cuzco. It was breathtaking scenery, with a maximum altitude of around 4,600m above sea level. We stopped and camped the first night in a small community called Huacahuasi.

Horses in the Mist. My Dian Fossey moment at Huacahuasi

The community of Huacahuasi

A Huacahuasi local in traditional dress

The trek through the cloud in the Lares Valley

The ultimate destination of this excursion was Maccu Picchu, the famous "Lost City of the Incas" west of Cuzco. It was re-discovered by Hiram Bingham in 1911, and the city itself sits between the mountains of Maccu Picchu and Huayna Picchu (Old Mountain and Young Mountain, respectively). Along with the Nazca lines, it is a site and a sight I have wanted to see since I was in my early teens.

Chuffed!

The restored city and Huayna Picchu in the background

Apparently, the original name of the city is unknown. The name "Maccu Picchu" was given to it due to its proximity to Maccu Picchu mountain, but the city seems to have been a haven for religious and intellectual people from various Inca cities around their empire, who would make pilgrimages to it via the network of roads. Some of these roads are now open to tourists as the popular Inca Trails.

A portion of the site, and the stunning surroundings.

As I'm getting closer to home, my drive to continue to write this blog is waning a bit. I'm becoming more concerned with finding another source of income from the Real World, as opposed to the imaginary one that I've been living in since November 2010. I'm satisfied that I've managed to tick off a hell of a lot of things from my bucket list, and I've managed to share a number of them on these pages. I may continue to write, but if not, I will wish you all well and ciao for now!

Ross Harper, Paris, April 2012

"It's hotter than the sun in 'ere" -- Iain 'Cheese' Rudkin

Lima came and went. It's a huge city, and I mainly drifted around the Miraflores district, also known as "gringo central", and tried to acclimatise to the heat. A fella I met at the dorm said how much Lima reminded him of Los Angeles. Not having been, I have no idea. Do the following photos show any likeness?

After having my fill of Lima, I took a bus from the capital to the city of Nazca. I'd heard of the Nazca Lines when I was a lot younger, and had always wanted to see them. Before booking myself onto one of the flights, however, I thought it'd be a bit of fun to tag along with another group of people who were being taken out to the Pre-Incan Necropolis.

The graves, and their mummies, were preserved in the desert's dry heat as best as possible, save for the activities of grave robbers who had taken complete pieces of textile and pottery. There were a number of graves like these around the one site, and even on the surface, the entire area was littered with human bone fragments.

What surprised me most, was the Nazca aqueduct system or Puquios. They are over 1400years old, but are still used today as sources of water for the city.

The canals are mainly covered over, with small tunnels left such as that shown in the photo below. The height of the tunnel is barely a meter, but they are still cleaned out in the same ancient way -- by having a man climb down one of the spiralling "manholes", and crawl through the tunnel removing any rubbish along the way.

The aqueduct tunnels -- the light in the distance is the next "manhole"

The spiraling path down to the "manhole" -- these are spaced out along the path of the aqueduct

The Nazca lines themselves are amazing. I met someone on this trip who said they were content with seeing photos of the lines rather than get into a tiny plane and risk losing their breakfast to see the lines for themselves. I totally disagree -- the flight cost $90 for around a 30-40 minute flight, but to me, it was worth every penny!

The astronaut

The monkey

It was something definitely crossed off the bucket list.

I spent 5 days in Nazca, and then left on another bus to Cuzco. The 15 hour, overnight bus trip turned into a 21 hour journey. Out route took us near a river which had burst its banks and caused mudslides down the mountain and onto the road. I know it can't be helped, but why, oh why, did they have to put a Mel Gibson film on to entertain us?!

More from Cuzco soon...

"I´ve left my book of quotes in Rothera" -- Ross

So they´ve let me out into the big wide world. Instead of free lodgings in return for work, I now have to find a place to sleep and decide what to do every day. Instead of regimented meal times, I now have to choose when, where and what to eat. Instead of a rudimentary grunting, I now have to use spoken language. I´m not quite sure it´s me yet.

Four ex-Rothera winterers left on the Dash 7 flight, along with a number of V.I.Ps, including Rt. Hon. David Willets, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Overseas Territories Director, Colin Roberts, who were down to look at the Antarctic science operations both at Rothera, and the surrounding local areas, and specifically to be shown the importance of the work that is done there, in looking at the effects of climate change. After landing at the military Mount Pleasant Airport on the Falkland Islands, the VIPs were taken to their accomodation, while we were taken to the settlement of Darwin.

Darwin Lodge is a fantastic place, run by some good people, and in a remote spot, where it was quite pleasant to get out and see some different wildlife, and of course, some green stuff! I had honestly expècted to be shocked by wading through grass after so long wading through snow, but it felt totally normal again. Using money, crossing the road, and other things that I expected to find a challenge just became second nature, as they had been before going South. I suppose the Falkland Islands is a nice bridge into the real world, as the population is so low, and is concentrated in the capital of Stanley. There are a lot of remnants from the conflict between UK and Argentina 30 years ago -- some mental ones, in the attidudes of the Islanders, and some physical ones, such as that below.

It seemed a shame that some of the beaches were off limits, due to suspected mine presence there -- beaches such as the ones of Gypsy Cove, home to a colony of Magellenic penguins.

Gypsy Cove is a good walk away from Stanley. Other sites of wildlife interest include Volunteer Point, but this would have been a three hour journey, most of which would have been off road, and would have worked out pretty expensive. Instead a couple of us satisfied ourselves with the mysterious Gnome Colony at Kay´s B&B in Stanley.

Every time I got my camera out, they stopped moving, I swear!

The Rockhopper penguin colony, just outside Stanley, was a shorter off road journey (around 1 hour), and the farmer who owned the land gave us a bit of the history of the land, and local points of interest, while he drove us to the coast and to the colony.

This was a beautiful spot, despite me ignoring the advice that the rocks are pretty slippy, and falling flat on my arse.

After a week in the Falklands, I flew to Lima, Peru, via Punta Arenas and Santiago, Chile (where I missed my connection!).

Lima is right on the coast, looking out west over the Pacific Ocean. It´s an enormous place, but I´ve focussed most of my wanderings in the very gringo area of Miraflores, while I work up the tourist spirit to get down to Nazca. I will leave tomorrow!

"Some people make money, and some make history" -- Tony Wilson

This will be my last entry from Rothera. I leave the base, the peninsula, the continent on Monday 20th, and head up to the Falkland Islands for a few days before heading to Peru. I may try and keep the blog going for a while as I make my way back to wherever the hell it is that I'm going.

I'm going to miss Rothera....

I'm going to miss the penguins....


And I suppose I'm going to miss this lot too...

Thanks very much to:

Cheese (for taking the insults on the nose),

Tom W (for terrifying me on Mount Trident),

Tamsin (for bearing up against my whining),

Terri (for the static shocks),

Frazer (for the bear hugs),

Dave Smyth (for the unprintable conversations) ,

Gav (for the notes),

Ian (for the music, the visuals, and the climbs!),

Vicki (for the tea and chocolate bars),

Malcy (for introducing me to climbing),

Simo (for the drunken conversations),

Tomo (for keeping it all going!),

Dave Hunt (for the rock and roll),

Dave Seaton (for keeping us in touch with the world),

Curly (for the engine!),

Mike (for the t-shirts),

Nick (for the banter!!),

Lorna (for putting up with our filming requests)

and Rod (for keeping us in check)

"Great God! This is an awful place" -- Robert Falcon Scott

On 12th January, I had the opportunity to travel the furthest south I have ever been, or indeed, the furthest south it is possible to go. A network of GPS receivers run by the University of Bath, in conjunction with BAS had been running since 2009, and one of these sites was located at Site Owl, 30 miles from the Geographic South Pole. This network has been used to gather data about the ionosphere, and to help create computer models to predict its behaviour. This summer season was the last that the experiment would run, so it was my job, along with Doug the pilot and Dave the air mechanic, to visit the site and its three independent receivers and associated power systems, retrieve the data from them, remove the systems from the site and get them sent back to the UK.

The South Pole station is run by the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) who set their clocks by New Zealand time. It is common for Antarctic bases to set their clocks by their respective entry points into the continent. South Pole traffic enters via the US McMurdo station, which has its entry point in New Zealan, hence the time zone -- 16 hours ahead of Rothera. To account for our arrival time, and also to wait for weather windows, we stopped at Union Glacer, a privately owned camp in the Ellesworth Mountains.

Union Glacier camp

Union Glacer is operated by Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions (ALE). The camp is enormous, with capacity enough for all the private expeditions wanting to repeat the footsteps of Scott in the centenary year of his reaching the South Pole. There were many people also wanting to do "The Last Degree" -- getting flown out to 89 degrees South, and making their way to the Pole from there. The planes and air crew are all supplied by Ken Borek Air, and most of the guys flying and operating out of Union Glacier passed through Rothera earlier in the season.

A weather window opened a couple of days later, which allowed us to arrive at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station early in their working day. The station is quite impressive, but I think a winter there would be a lot more challenging than one at Rothera, where we have a virtual playground in the form of the local mountains and travel areas.

Amundsen-Scott Station

inside Amundsen-Scott

The science at Amundsen Scott seems to be mainly astronomical or cosmological in nature. Single experiments take up huge outbuildings, such as the South Pole telescope, or the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. Some of these take advantage of the long, dark Pole winters, and their apparently amazing auroral displays.

Amongst the things that made my jaw drop was the hydroponics area. It was being prepared over summer for use by the wintering crew. Apparently, during that time, the crew can help themselves to fresh tomatoes, strawberries, watermelons, lettuce...

I loose track of the things I would have done for that facility at Rothera over winter!!!

the hydroponic growth chamber at Amundsen-Scott

I was extremely lucky to be at the Pole on the 17th January 2012 -- exactly one hundred years after Robert Falcon Scott and his team reached the South Pole. It was around five weeks behind the first team, led by Roald Amundsen, but the fact that Scott made his great sacrifice by collecting important scientific data along the way is remembered still. It is a great legacy that the many research programs operating all across the continent remember and are possibly inspired by.

There was a brief ceremony, led by a members of ALE, who had based themselves at a camp near the research station. Two members of USAP contributed with speeches based around the importance of science to Scott's expedition. Henry Worsley, a descendant of Frank Worsley, captain of Shackleton's Endurance, made a speech which acknowledged the importance of science, but highlighted the importance of the military side -- the less mentioned patriotism and camaraderie that were major elements of the expedition.

Henry Worsley gives a speech at the Scott Centenary

Worsley had made his own expedition, retracing Scott's steps from the coast to the Pole and arriving, frost bitten and tired, in time for the centenary.

The ceremonial South Pole marker (around 50m away from the actual Pole marker)

After talking with other people who had worked at the Pole before me, I felt quite prepared for the cold. The field stores at Rothera had some fantastic kit that I'd taken with me, in addition to my normal field kit. However, the South Pole is on the high Antarctic Plateau, at more than 9,000 feet. With the air movements around the area, the pressure at the pole is around 680mbar, as opposed to the 960mbar here at Rothera today! Breathing becomes harder when over exerted, and headaches develop as the body tries to adapt to not having the same amount of oxygen in the blood. Couple this with the jet lag from the 16 hour time difference, and the first few days can be quite unpleasant.

Weather on arrival at the Pole (note the low air pressure!)

We stayed and worked out from the Pole for just over a week, departing early hours of Sunday 22nd January. Thanks to a time travelling Twin Otter aircraft, we arrived early Saturday evening, and were able to enjoy a party signalling the arrival of the USAPs Lawrence M. Gould ship to Rothera.

obligatory hero pose

Rothera does feel like home, and it was great to get back to my friends here. It will be very strange, in around three weeks time, when my time here ends and I have to leave Rothera Research Station, on Adelaide Island, and head back to the Real World.

"...all a man needs to be happy is a full stomach and warmth, and I begin to think it's nearly true. No worries, no trains, no letters to answer, no collars to wear -- but I wonder which of us would not jump at the chance to change it all tomorrow" -- Dr Alexander Macklin, ships surgeon on board the Shackleton's ship, the Endurance.

Science is a go! The field parties were input out into their various sites of interest a few months ago, and results are coming back to Rothera in the form of ice cores, data cards, and photos. I have been out to a couple of field sites with my replacement, Tom, in order to continue the hand over, even spending a brilliant Christmas Day working out at Brennecke Nunatak installing a new power system for the GPS logger there. Power is an important issue for Antarctic science, where instruments can be left for years at a time with no visitors. There is an abundance of wind and sunlight in certain spots, but Brennecke has a history of having too much wind, which, in the past, has destroyed the wind turbines intended on powering the instrument. We were there to install a new turbine, and associated electronics for the power monitoring. Of course, there's always the opportunity for some Hero Posing:



It's not all work though. Aside from the mighty winter band, Jog On Eric, I did a spot of moonlighting in a second band, which seemed to come together out of nothing for one gig, then fizzle away, as band members left to go to their field projects and other exciting places. The Travelling Dangleberries also known as Ross and The Trons (but probably only to me!) got together for a quick jam, knocked out a few songs and played one Saturday night, to rapturous applause. Adam Bradley, the 2012 Wintering Comms manager, did an amazing performance on the sax; Chris Hill, the Lake Ellesworth project manager, knocked the hell out of the drums; Simon Garrod, the stand in Field Operations Manager, put Jerry Lee Lewis to shame on the keys, and an assortment of guest guitarists, bass players, and singers ensured an excellent night.



I was a bit excited when Lorna, our wintering chef took me aside to tell me that she'd managed to get a supply of milk from the RRS James Clark Ross while it had been docked at Rothera. I haven't had milk in so long, and it went down a treat!



Finally, we managed to get out on a bit of a boat ride the other night, and I saw my first Leopard Seal. This one was just a pup, but an adult one was not far away. The Leps can be pretty vicious and their presence means that the marine team cannot make their dives in their vicinity.



The contract here is coming to an end, and I'm starting to think about "weeks" till I'm finished, rather than "months". Before I leave here, I have one last adventure. Next week, I'm on my way to the Amundsen-Scott base at the South Pole...

"Adventure is just bad planning" -- Roald Amundsen

100 years ago today, the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his team became the first men to stand at the geographic South Pole, beating Robert Falcon Scott by around 5 weeks. We have had frequent updates to our "infoscreen" in the dining room over the past couple of weeks showing the historic entries from both Amundsen and Scott's diaries and the contrast between the two. While Amundsen's team seemed to go from strength to strength, finally triumphing in the race, Scott's team seemed to have the worst of things thrown at them every day, ultimately ending tragically in the deaths of all party members. However, Scott's name is lauded as a hero due mainly to his difference of motives. Whereas Amundson was seemingly driven by a desire for speed, Scott was uncompromising in his dedication to science. Scott's expedition would frequently collect samples and perform various measurements along the way, and it's this legacy that sticks in a lot of our minds down here.

But anyway, some photos...

Field science season is in full swing. Pilot Doug Pearson does final checks on the Twin Otter before heading off, with Tamsin and Tom, to service an Automatic Weather Station on the Larson Ice Shelf.

The James Clark Ross arrives at Rothera bringing much needed supplies for the summer season. We all engaged in relief duties, shifting all sorts of cargo off the ship and into it's place on base.

And as a treat, the out going winter crew of 2011 were invited on board for a meal with the Captain.