Fun in the sun

The weather here has been particularly rubbish for a while now - this is possibly be related to South Georgia being a sub-Antarctic island and it being winter just now.  Anyway, last week saw a significant improvement in the situation and we were treated to a few stunning days with blue skies above and crisp snow below.  Island exploration was again an option so this blog is basically going to be lots of nice pictures of sunny days in South Georgia.  I won't write much as there is little to say - every day was fairly awesome, but there's only so many ways to say this.  The first trip out was to Echo Pass and I headed off on skis while Ella opted for snowshoes (skis and dubious knees aren't known for being the best combination).  This meant I had a slight advantage on the downhills, but unfortunately means Ella may get significantly fitter than me thanks to the extra effort required from her to move.  The pictures probably make it look warmer than it actually was but, despite building ourselves an excellent snow seat facing the sun with headrests and bivvi bag seat covers, lunch had to be cut short when we both admitted we could no longer feel our fingers and that the whole back part of our bodies was basically numb.  Other than that it was an excellent day out.

Looking across towards the Neumayer Glacier from the top of Echo Pass (photo Ella du Breuil)

The road less travelled

Sunday required a bit of early morning boating to be done as some fishing vessels needed inspecting.  Going boating is rarely a hardship, but on a day like this it was definitely a good way to start the day.  I managed not to squash Jo between our boat and the ship which is always a bonus and only left her hanging around on the ladder for a short while before I managed to get back alongside to pick her up.  The prize for getting up early on a Sunday for boating duties was Eggs Benedict with homemade muffins, the last of the eggs and some hastily defrosted smoked salmon! 

A well co-ordinated fishing boat, big logistics boat and fuel tanker I believe

More amazing clouds

Penguin river in the snow

He really is very cute....possibly less so when he starts fighting

Evening sun on the Barff Peninsula

There are many advantages to working somewhere like this and one of the main ones is that work can generally be fitted in around the weather.  When the sun came out on Tuesday it seemed a shame not to make the most of it so work was put on hold and we headed up Brown Mountain for the afternoon.  It was definitely one of the best days of skiing I've had here, though I was again reminded that I really should just go back to the snowboard and accept that skis and I are never going to be the best of friends. 

Coming up the side of Brown Mountain with Gull Lake in the background

Rod, Ella and Jo somewhere near the top of Brown

The weekend just gone saw us heading back to Echo Pass, this time accompanied by Jo and Rod and carrying two foam mats to ensure a more leisurely lunch was possible.  We were using a mixture of alpine touring skis, cross country skis and snowshoes, which all have various advantages and disadvantages depending on the conditions.  Cross country skis definitely aren't great for steep downhills, but is seems they do make an excellent sledge if you join them together.  A valuable lesson was learnt by all of us though when one of the party decided to head head off down quite a steep slope on a ski sledge, while still wearing snowshoes.  This, it would seem, is a bad idea and can lead to a swift and quite painful ejection from the sledge if a snowshoe happens to get caught in the snow while you are travelling at maximum velocity.......possibly not an entirely unpredictable outcome.

A slightly warmer and more comfortable lunch stop

It's not a very hard life here it must be said

I don't normally put this kind of thing on here, but it's rather a lovely story; maybe returning to the real world won't be so bad: http://the5thleg.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/the-old-lovers/