Ross Island - best place in the world.

First up, just to clarify, we are currently alive and back home. We had no internet on the trip so the blog was written then but I'm only getting around to publishing it now. I only realised yesterday that this may be confusing when we met a friend who thought she was hallucinating because clearly we were still deep in the Southern Ocean. Sorry.

Day 18 – It's Tuesday today, which is weird 'cause yesterday was Sunday. So I guess we must've crossed the dateline. One guy on board missed his birthday, which would have been Monday, so he gets a reprieve from entering his 50s.

Well today was just absolutely bloody fantastic. We're at Ross Island. Now if you know your Antarctic history and have read all the explorer books (like I have) this is wildly exciting, this is where all the action happened, where all the big expeditions were based. All the landmarks here are so familiar to me – Mount Terror and Mount Erebus (volcanoes named after Ross' ships who first came by back in around 1840), Cape Evans, Cape Royds, Hut Point, Mount Discovery, Terra Nova Bay. We hung around off Cape Crozier which, as well as being very pretty, is where poor old Cherry-Garrard went one winter to find emperor penguin eggs and wrote a book called "The Worst Journey in the World". It's famously windy and was today too.

Ship's in ice again, with the island in the background:

The medical evacuation happened successfully in the morning and then the helicopter pilots decided they felt like taking us all for a flight.

Just takes a couple of people to get things ready.

Now a little miracle happened today – I fell in love with helicopters! The best thing ever! Granted, with a little assistance from my friend Valium. We had the most amazing flight with pilot Marcelo, swooping low over the land, getting an amazing sense of speed and of the scale of the landscape, absolutely bloody fantastic.

Karl's in his happy place.

Swooping around icy corners and slushy seas.

The ice-covered Ross Sea with Ross Island in the background.

Wheeeeeee!!!!

Day 19 Just when you think things can't get any better......we get to visit Scott's hut from his 1911-1913 Terra Nova (aka "last") expedition!!! This may be the best day of my life. I mean the wedding was pretty good, and so was Everest Base Camp, but this is really really really exciting.


We went by helicopter (of course!), taking off with pilot Julio:

On the way we buzzed (loving helicopters) Shakleton's hut at Cape Royd's: As you can see the sea ice here is solid all around the island which is why we couldn't get in by ship.

And then to Scott's hut at Cape Evans. This is how you make a helipad in this part of the world:
just stick up a wind sock.

And just in case something goes horribly wrong (in the tradition of polar exploration) we need to take along some supplies – like cooking supplies and a toilet:

So the history of these huts, for those of you who haven't devoured all the Heroic Age literature, is this. Beginning of the 20^th century, Antarctica was the last great unexplored corner of the world, everyone wanted to get to the South Pole and to claim as much glory/land/economic potential as they could for their own nation. The Brrritish Empiah was particularly invested in this.

The way you attacked the Pole was this. Head down one Summer by ship (the only time you can get close, when some of the sea ice has melted, also it's a bit dark all Winter what with the sun never rising and all), establish a base and take a few trips inland to bury some food stores for the big trip to the Pole, hang out all Winter doing Important Scientific Work, set off for the Pole as early as possible the next Summer, die/nearly die, become a hero. And so the expeditions all came and built huts for them to spend the Winter in.

As the expedition tended to be rather keen to just get the hell out of there by the time their ship returned, a year of two later, alot of stuff got left behind. And also other expeditions could use the huts and remaining supplies in emergencies. It being quite cold down here the huts and contents were preserved quite nicely for years but more recently they have been formally treated and preserved by (I think) the New Zealand Heritage people.

Polar explorers with the hut on the shore of the frozen McMurdo Sound.

Me excitedly signing the visitor's book beside ye olde skis.

The galley area, with stove, in the "men's" part of the hut, which was separated from the "Officers'" part of the hut. All pots and pans and condiments etc. still lying around like you could just march on in and cook up a storm.

The dining table, with bunks in the background, in the Officers' section of the hut. Mattresses, pillows, sleeping bags, piles of socks, scientific equipment, magazines all waiting for us to just move in.

Supplies, all marked for the BAE (British Antarctic Expedition) Shore Party.

A pile of seal blubber (not as stinky as you'd think for hundred year old blubber) which was used for cooking and heating.

The hut nestled on the shore of its little bay, which is covered in sea ice. They liked the sea ice as it was easier to travel over than the land – nice and flat to ski across. The island is volcanic, hence the black sand and rock. This is taken from Windvane Hill, where they stationed the meteorological equipment, and where there was enough wind to bring tears to my eyes in the middle of Summer and these guys struggled up here in the deep dark of Winter to take their measurements.

And flying back to the ship.

Day 20 Ross Ice Shelf Day

Back to Cape Crozier for a closer look at the ice shelf, the big one, the size of France, that one. It was a gorgeous foggy morning and some combination of the fog and cold made the air sparkle like it was full of glitter. Magic. Though at first people thought their eyes were going funny or they were about to faint or get a migraine.

The ship in the fog.

First up in the morning: zodiac cruising and our fleet awaits:

This is how you get down to your zodiac and then hope to time the bobbing of the zodiac with the bobbing of the ship and not fall in the water in between:

The ice shelf up close, it's about 40-50m high above the water with a couple of hundred metres below. Doesn't it look like a lovely big chunk of icing that you want to break off and munch through?

And of course there were penguins:

Penguin investigating tourists:

Karl and Mount Terror:

And then in the afternoon, just when you think it can't get any better, they announced........helicopter flight! Best. Flight. Ever.

Buzzing the shelf from above with pilot Marcelo:

Big ice cliff:

The ice just goes on and on and on and there's just nothing else out here. This is what the explorers (Scott, Shackleton etc.) walked across for hundreds of miles. Helicopter included for scale.

And then......we landed! We couldn't get out but it was amazing to be down on the actual shelf looking at the flat, never ending whiteness.

The flight (apologies for dodgy quality):

So there you have it. Ross Island, best place in the world. Next stop, somewhere else.