Glamping in South Georgia

Another holiday, another few days spent in a hut in pretty bad weather, more of me moaning about the lack of flushing toilet, shower, deep pile carpets and room service.  Actually, I probably don't moan about the lack of room service as this usually is available, if only as a means to shut me up.  Ella does make good tea.  This trip was a little different from previous ones though as we were joined by Jo (one of the Government Officers) who is far less inclined to eat ration packs than Ella and I.  The plan had been to get dropped off by boat at Harpon Hut, spend a few days there and then walk or ski back.  After our last little adventure to see the penguins Ella and I were quite keen to keep both walking and navigational requirements to a minimum on this trip.  Unfortunately, the wind picked up on the day we were due to leave so boating was no longer an option and recent snowfall would have made the trip on foot quite challenging/unpleasant depending how you look at these things.  One of the local fishing vessels then called in to say they had a patient for me so the morning was spent doing a bit of doctoring.  This rather unusual activity ensured there was no longer time to make it to Harpon on foot and the decision was made (and I had been so looking forward to swimming through waist deep snow whilst carrying a massive rucksack).  Not to be put off holiday plans entirely, we decided to go to Maiviken hut for a couple of days instead - less than a 30 minute run from base in the summer, but a good 2 hr trudge in current conditions.  The advantage of this hut is that there are sleeping bags stored there and, as it is so close to base, we were not required to carry a tent.  Light and fast travel you might think; but no, this was not to be the case.  All weight and volume lost by taking out the camping kit was soon replaced by pate, chorizo, dried onions/mushrooms/mince, wine, cream (yes really), gin, bacon, tortilla wraps and some crosswords.

The walk over was far less unpleasant than expected - windy, but with a bit of sun and no horrendously deep patches of snow to battle with.  Snowshoes really are one of my favourite things now.  Friday was Jo's birthday so, after arriving at the hut and dumping bags, it was time to dig a snow seat and celebrate with gin and tonics in the evening sun.  Jo then cooked us all a delicious birthday meal, having sensibly decided that Ella and I were not to be trusted with the preparation of anything other than boiling water.  After hearing the weather forecast for the next couple of days we reassessed our supplies and realised we had grossly underestimated the quantity of gin that we would require.  A state of emergency was declared and resupply from base requested during the next radio sched.  We were admittedly quite surprised to discover our request was to be granted, and Saturday saw the arrival of Rod and Nik with a nalgene of gin, some tonic and a packet of Maryland cookies.  They were rewarded for their efforts with tea and oatcakes, which was maybe not the fairest of swaps.

Gin and tonics in the snow

A short walk down to sealer's cave followed, and a very pleasant afternoon was spent drinking tea (after a short walk back up to the hut to collect fuel for the stove), eating chocolate and lying in the sun looking out to sea, while being sheltered nicely from the wind by the cave walls. 

Spindrift is exceedingly beautiful, yet unfortunately also very annoying and unpleasant when it's blown into your face at high speed

Tea time at the cave

We were very lucky to have clear starry nights for the whole trip making night time wanderings a cold, but definitely not unpleasant experience.  A torch was rarely required as the moon illuminated the twinkling snow beautifully and, as always on these trips, I was reminded how lucky I am to be here.

Maiviken Hut in the moonlight

A certain level of commitment was required to vacate the hut on the Sunday as the wind was whistling through the vent in a most determined manner.  However, we had completed as much of the day's crossword as we could and were feeling relatively hardened by the bacon rolls we had just consumed for breakfast.  We set off up a nearby hill having decided that a high level walk would clearly be the best option for an extremely windy day.  The sun was occasionally glimpsed through the clouds, though only when its appearance didn't coincide with a gust of wind that blew icy spindrift into our faces and forced us to look only at our feet.  Eventually we arrived at our (admittedly quite arbitrary) goal, by which time the gusts were up to about 50 knots.  Ella and Jo were knocked to the ground by a particularly vicious one, and the fact I wasn't is probably an indication that I really do need to start eating less!  It was universally decided that this was not the best spot for lunch so we headed back down for tea, oatcakes and more chocolate.  And maybe a glass of wine and a little bit of gin just to build up our strength for the journey home.

The picture in no way captures the conditions at this point!

A lot of whiteness and not a lot of people

Monday was to be the last day of the holiday and we could no longer put off the task we had been given by one of the base scientists.  Unfortunately he was unable to complete it himself being currently stuck on a fishing vessel with a lots of Russian and Norwegian sailors somewhere in the vague vicinity of South Georgia.  This meant we were saddled with the enviable role of surrogate fur seal poo collectors.  My delight in being given this role was limited to say the least, and was reduced further when we realised the sample bags we had been given were not the sealable kind.  Jo was even less keen than Ella and I, so the task of chipping frozen poo from the snow (nope, I'm not kidding) was left to us.  Jo mainly attempted (not entirely unsuccessfully) to make friends with one of the large male fur seals that we met down at the beach.  Eventually 10 samples were collected (though the chance of them all being from the required species of seal is minimal to none I would say) and it was time to head back to base carrying our precious load.

Who know whether we collected elephant seal or fur seal poo - it was fairly unpleasant either way

One day Ella and I will get nice weather for our holidays; just maybe not while we're still living in South Georgia.

Ok, so it wasn't all bad this time!