Port Lockroy, Antarctica, Stuck in a blizzard with you - 03:23 pm
16 Dec 2008
What an evening! We’ve lost all feeling in our hands and feet, feeling shooting pains as the blood starts flowing again. Pierre and I were dropped off on our own at a Gentoo colony while the others headed off to the British base to send postcards and buy souvenirs. It was fabulous to be on our own with the penguins...until we got hit by a blizzzard!
As we sat watching the Gentoos, sitting on their stony nests or nicking pebbles from each other, the snow came thick and fast against our backs and the wind picked up, driving it ever faster and more horizontal. We soon got very cold. But the penguins seemed immune to it.
Have a look and a listen to the howling wind here.
This is the coldest we’ve been. After about 90 minutes I could feel that my energy was draining. Trying to keep the camera lens clean was a never-ending job and Pierre’s fingers had lost all feeling. The camera’s focus is so sensitive that it’s impossible to operate it using thick gloves and his thin ones were not giving enough protection.
Unbelievably hardy animals. I’m more impressed by them as each day passes and shows me my own inadequacies in this climate.
They simply carry on, squabbling over pebbles, heading off to the ocean or sleeping - beaks to the wind.
We were picked up about 2 hours after being dropped off. I’d been waving at the British base across the bay in the hopes that a birder would see us through binoculars. They hadn’t. We gladly went back to the ship, cold to the core. It took ages for feeling to come back into Pierres hands and my feet. While incredible to see this weather and the animals’ immunity to it, we certainly couldn’t have stayed out longer much longer - even with our fancy down jackets and fleeces. It’s not going to get dark tonight and it appears that these birds are going to carry on throughout the night.
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1 posted at 08:06am on 27 March, 2009 by sarah
Loving the blogs! it gives such a good sense of what these trips are like, and adds an extra dimension on top of actual footage! keep up the good work.