Another Cape Evans trip, and a busy day.

For more information on the Aurora, see this website http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/shackleton/1914/lostmen.html . The Aurora expedition was a during the same time as the Endurance, which was when Shackelton attempted to cross Antarctica, from the Weddell Sea, near South America, to the Ross Sea, where I am. The Aurora part of it was to lay food and supply depots from the South Pole to the Ross Sea for Shackelton's team. They had a horrible time, and ended up getting stuck at Discovery Hut, near where I'm at now, which is a small, drafty hut that Scott built, but used only for supplies. When the Ross Sea froze over, the group headed for Cape Evans and stayed there while waiting for someone to come and get them. They ended up getting stuck in this area for 2 years, while Shackelton was dealing with the Endurance problems on the other side of the continent (there is a movie and several books based on Shackelton's Endurance expedition, all of which are worth checking out, if you're interested, plus the book Shackelton himself wrote, South). Anyway, yes the ship Aurora was blown out to sea, but her crew survived and eventually came back to pick up the men left behind, albeit over a year later. But the hut is a mess because they were saved, and after over a year of living off seal meat, keeping warm by burning seal blubber, and not having a bath, they left as soon as they could. Quite frankly, I can't blame them.

Now, when we went to Cape Evans on Friday, there was a group of conservationists from New Zealand, who are working on fixing the hut and saving the artifacts there. They said that in the 60's, there was a group who came in and 'fixed up' the hut, and moved stuff around. Evidently historical conservation was a lot different in the 60's than it is now. So this group is working on shoring up the hut, since a century of ice and water has damaged several parts of the building. They are also cataloging everything they find, both in and out of the hut, and will eventually be taking it all out, preserving it, and putting it back in as accurate a position as they can determine from both current pictures they are taking now, and pictures that Scott and Shackelton's men took while they were living there. They should be done by 2014. They only just finished the hut at Cape Royd's, which was built by Shackelton in 1908 for his Nimrod (the name of his ship) expedition.

Which reminds me...Cape Royd's is only about another 10 miles or so from Cape Evans. One of the Kiwi historians at the hut on Friday said that the ice has melted up to Cape Royds and there is open ocean there. So it won't be long before we won't be taking trips to Cape Evans anymore. Things seem to melt really fast down here.

Here is a shot of the Barne Glacier, which is about 7 miles from Scott's Hut at Cape Royds. Some of the sea ice school people got to go out and get closer to it. I won't have the chance, but even from 7 miles away, it's impressive.


So that was my Friday. And when I got back, I collected all 4 packages that had come in for me, from Mom, and Chris and Anna and Art. And since she had packages too, we opened our packages and watched movies for the afternoon.

Yesterday was work, and I was up here in town for the day, on the ambo. We ended up having 3 calls, one for a fire alarm (that was nothing) and 2 medical calls that were also nothing. But it made for a busy day.

And tonight is the science lecture I've been waiting for, so I can ask Kerry's questions. It's about the anti-freeze proteins in the fish down here. I can't wait.

I'm such a geek...