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Monday, December 14, 2009

What's a pirate's favorite movie? Any one rated "ARRGH!"

ARRGH! Not because I'm feeling particularly buccaneerish . . . I've been battling the McTown Crud, Part III . . . recently H1N1 shots were made available. Everyone should get one, they said. . . even if you aren't feeling well, they said . . . it won't make you sicker, they said . . . they lied, I said . . . ARRGH! . . . after several days of sleep, sweat and chills, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. So I'll 'blog'.
Luckily I took some sightseeing trips the last two weekends. Two weeks ago, I rode 5 or 6 miles towards Cape Evans in a Delta. It took about an hour, one way.
Deltas are the workhorse around here. With the wide balloon tires, they can travel the lightly groomed snow roads on the ice shelf and sea ice. Different configurations allow them to carry passengers or cargo. They just aren't very fast . . . which is a good thing, since they also don't have much for suspensions. . .
The ice caves are located in the side of the ice tongue that sticks into the sea from the glacier down from Mt. Erebus. Waves and glacial movement create openings in the sides, caves. Crystals form on the walls and ceiling.
We couldn't go very far once inside. There are small openings into other areas, but it's best to stay out and just look in. Glaciers sometimes wag their tongues.
Light filters through different layers. I guess this is ice blue. Only about 4-5 of us were allowed in at a time. Once I came out, it turned out some of the locals had shown up.
The policy is, if the wildlife reacts to us in any way, we are to back off. What were we to do when two Adelie penguins decided to join us - run away? We actually watched them come from a couple hundred yards away, making a bee line directly towards us.
I have no idea what was up with this guy. Once he saw the penguins, he pulled off his cold weather gear to reveal the tux. He had the hat in his knapsack. Apparently it was some sort of photo op; there was another person there shooting a lot. The penguins actually started to move away from him. I would have too.
By this time, I was kneeling, taking photos from just a few yards away. These two acted if they were trying to figure out what we were. They were about 18" tall, 24" at the most.
As they kept approaching, I decided to flop onto my stomach for an eye-to-eye shot. This one stopped jsut several feet away and kept watching me. Wish I knew what was going through it's head. Maybe it was wondering what was going through the head of the big red critter lying on it's stomach . . .
Eventually they satisfied their curiousity or whatever and wandered off. We later saw a flock of about 15 off in the distance. These two were probably with that group.
Last weekend's trip was just a short ride over to Scott Base, the New Zealand station. From right out front we could wander onto the ice to check out the pressure ridges. The photos along the side are from that trip.