More pie and a trip to paradise

One of the good (and occasionally bad) things about living at KEP is that we generally have a lot of visitors coming and going throughout the year.  The cruise ships and fishing vessels rarely have much impact on base life - the occasional invite on board for dinner or the odd patient being brought ashore to see me.  Naval vessels, on the other hand, usually cause all manner of disturbance to base life!  Luckily the disturbance is nearly always positive, and although the boating team are usually run ragged trying to get people ashore to see the place,  Naval visits are generally something to look forward to.  They mean trips on board for dinner and social nights, delicious three course meals at the Government Officer's house, walks with the crew and, most importantly, the opportunity to have a chat with some new people.  It seemed like an exceptionally good idea to invite a few of the crew from HMS RICHMOND ashore to join us for dinner on one of these visits - just a normal evening meal rather than a proper three course affair.  Unfortunately I had entirely failed to notice that I was on cooking duty on the suggested day, which meant it was my responsibility to sort out food for them.  Unsurprisingly I have yet to develop an overwhelming passion for cooking, but I do still have an overwhelming love of pie.  And so it was that I found myself making reindeer pie for about 18 people (that is a lot of pastry to be mixing up) and getting uncharacteristically stressed when the top of the pie refused to go brown quickly enough for my liking (you'll be glad to know all was fine once I remembered to cut holes in it).  It didn't help that one of our guests was a chef, but it seemed that mashed potato made from real potatoes and the fact they were allowed to go up for seconds was all that was required to keep them happy.  Ella, Jo and I also volunteered to take a few of them out for a walk to Maiviken so they could see a bit more of the island.  This not only meant we got to show off our home in all its sunny glory, but also meant we got to watch them do battle with antique snow shoes as they were the only kind we had enough of to lend out.  I guess we could have been kind and given them the nice, new metal ones and walked in the over-sized tennis rackets ourselves, but we're obviously just not that nice!  Everyone appeared to have a good time despite the rather tiresome footwear and we did provide tea and coffee at Maiviken hut to make up for it.

Naval outing to Tortula Bay supervised by a large male fur seal

Ella, Jo and some of the crew from HMS RICHMOND (Sadly I was stood on a hut roof to take this and not actually flying)

A while ago I wrote a 'to do' list of all the places I wanted to visit and things I wanted to see on South Georgia before leaving in November.  As this blog probably suggests, Ella, Jo and I have been doing a fairly good job of ticking things off that list.  One place that we were all keen to get to was Curlew Cave as it had been described by a previous BAS winterer as being one of the most beautiful places on the island.  Unfortunately, it isn't somewhere that people visit often and no one seemed to know quite how to get to it.  Being highly organized and in possession of lots of useful email addresses, Jo took it upon herself to find out.  The cave lies at the foot of Carr Valley and is named (like the valley) after Tim and Pauline Carr who spent several years living on South Georgia in their yacht, Curlew.  Tim very kindly and extremely promptly got back to us with detailed directions and a map (oh the wonders of modern technology) so we were good to go.  Large packs were required even for only one night as we had to take tent/stove/crampons/axe/iridium phone/radios etc etc, and even Jo relented this time and allowed us to take ration packs rather than carry ingredients to make a more exciting evening meal.  The trip over was far less demanding than anticipated - it turns out that the incredibly steep col we went over on a previous trip, and had all been dreading this time, wasn't actually the one we had to go over (we have clearly got better at reading maps in the last few months) and the actual 'No Name Col' was a gently ascending delight.

Heading up the imaginatively titled 'No Name Col'

Jo and Ella enjoying a rest at the top

Once over the col we looked down into a lush green valley with the turquoise water of West Cumberland bay in the background and decided almost immediately that this was indeed one of the most beautiful places on the island.

Looking down into Carr Valley

The sea really is this colour when the sun's out

We had initially planned to sleep in the cave, but on Tim's advice had scrapped this plan and decided to camp in the valley above.  After some vertiginous scrambling down through slippery tussock (definitely easier without the big bags) we arrived at the beach and found the hole in the rock that led to the cave.  The blocks of ice we found deposited right at the back of the cave confirmed our decision not to sleep in it was the right call - the arrival of high tide would almost certainly have resulted in a very damp night.  It was, however, a pretty impressive place to be, and the hour or so we spent lying on the beach in the sun watching Sooty Albatrosses wheel around above us ensured no one resented the steep climb back up the tussock to our bags.

Curlew Cove - a little bit of paradise!

Curlew Cave

Ropes in place from the time when kayaks were stored here by Tim and Pauline Carr

Another thing on my 'to do' list was see a Sooty Albatrosses close up as they are just the most beautiful birds I've ever seen and have awesome cartoon-like eyes.  Sometimes wishes do come true!  By the time we go back to our bags I'd taken about two hundred photos of them as there were nests everywhere and they just kept posing - almost certainly just for my benefit.  All I need now are some pictures of them flying with their feet stuck out like the landing gear of a plane and my life might be complete.

Just beautiful!

Check out the eyes!

Got to stay beautiful - much preening required

Carr Valley - not the worst place in the world to spend a night

Finding a suitable campsite was tricky as the recent melt meant everywhere was incredibly soggy.  We picked what looked like a shallow slope (what looks like a shallow slope when you're standing up nearly always feels far steeper when you're lying down - I've made this mistake before and really should know better!) and set up camp after enjoying a glass of port in the evening sun.  Ella and I thought Jo probably needed more practice with this type of stove (tenuous excuse for laziness) so we sat back while tea and dinner was prepared.  After an awesome meal of some kind of partially re-hydrated brown mush, we settled in for a ridiculously early night.  Jo and I then proceeded to watch Ella spend the night intermittently assuming the foetal position at the foot of the tent thanks to her particularly slippery thermarest. 

A much needed tea break on the journey home

The trudge back up to the col was eased massively by the cup of tea we brewed on some rocks about half way up, and by the promise of bacon sandwiches when we made it to the top.  Micky had come out to join us and met us on the final steep section up to the col - the bacon sandwiches he had made that morning and carried up for us were motivation enough to get us to the top in no time.

Another amazing trip away to a beautiful place with excellent company and some very good port!