Post the Eleventh

It's for real now.  The Aurora Australis has left.  Gone.  Vamoosed.  Departed.  Disappeared.  Left the building.



So here we remain until she returns in early February, isolated.  Well, except for email.  And the internet.  Except for those, we are cut off.

Oh, and the phone.  We have the phone.  But not counting the phone, email and the internet, we are on our own. 

And the airlink.  There's the A319 airlink out of Casey, which can be reached by Twin Otter aircraft.  But aside from that (and the internet, and email, and phones) we are entirely shut away from the world.

Freaky.

So, it was a Wednesday evening when she left us.  All returning winterers were aboard, as well as all of the RTA (remember that?) cargo, and all of the Davis cargo was ashore.  Time for her to sail back to Hobart.

(Apologies for the quality of the forthcoming photos.  Because it was late evening the sun was in the wrong quarter.  Still, given the sub-optimal quality of photography so far on this blog, who is really surprised?)

Here the Aurora is, then, moments before getting under way.

Time to go home

As is traditional all of the station's population gathered to farewell her as she left.  Also traditionally she is farewelled by the release of flares and smokepots.

(Smokepots I can understand.  Flares?  Well, they tend to be a little bit unimpressive in the blazing 24hr sunshine, I think.)

Once it was evident that the ship was underway, so began the tradition.  So, here are a couple of photos of some traditional traditions being followed.  As is the custom.

Bye bye ship

Tradition

And with that, the ship sailed away.

Going...

Going...

Going...

Not there any more

And so here we are, with no simple means of return until she's back to get us next year.

Please keep the world nice until we return.  OK?

Swim-Swim found the whole thing a bit emotional.  He had become attached to the old orange bucket; it was a bit of a second home for him, and seeing it disappear from view was a little bit overwhelming for him.

I got a quick snap of him before he recovered himself, and you can see the tears welling in his eyes.  Bless his little tartan scarf.

Deeply affected

As we watched her sail behind an iceberg and out of our lives forever (well, until February), the fellow I was standing next to (known affectionately as 'Horse') mentioned to me that he had just returned from a short walk down the coast, where he had seen two Weddell seal pups on the ice, just a little way off shore.

Weddell seals!

I was just about to grab my camera when he stopped me, saying that the sun would make the photos worthless, and that I should go the following morning.  As Horse is something of a good photographer, and I am... something less... I took his advice and curbed my enthusiasm.

So it was that the following morning before work I headed out with a song in my heart, meaning to finally capture some good wildlife photographs.

So, here is the start of my trek, looking south toward where the seals had been sighted.

Odyssey underway!

My path took me past the newly constructed (just last summer) Davis wharf, at which was stacked a lot of material that was supposed to be RTA on the ship.  Alas, the late arrival of our voyage, and commensurate weakening of the sea ice, put a stop to that.  The RTA stuff will now have to wait until Voyage 3, when barges will be able to take it out to the ship.

Forsaken

As I nonchalantly strolled along the coastline (yet all the while keeping an eagle eye out for Weddell seals (Weddell seals!)), I noticed these fascinating ice structures.

A lovely little ice garden

The Vestfold Hills (where Davis is) is ice free, meaning that whenever there is a blizzard a lot of dirt gets blown around.  Much of it ends up on the sea ice, causing random discoloration of the ice.  Then, when the sun shines on it, the darker 'dirty' ice melts faster than the ice which, for whatever reason, has no dirt on it.  And these are the result.  Funky.

At this stage I thought it might be fun to turn around and get a picture of Davis from a different angle.  So I did that.

Yep.  Davis.  Whoop-de-doo.

So, I walked along that track, keeping my eyes peeled (ouch) for Weddell seals (Weddell seals!).  But hide nor hair of them I saw none.  Perplexed, I turned back, looking out even harder as I made my way back.

And then, I saw something!  Yes!  Could it be that Weddell seal pup (Weddell seals!) that I had been advised of?  I couldn't see clearly, since it was just out of good visual range, so I zoomed in with the camera.  The viewfinder didn't help either, so I took some photos, hoping that I had in fact finally captured some wildlife.

Could it be?

Later that day I downloaded my photos onto the computer and had a better look.  And this is the result.

A rock

Yep.  I had successfully tracked down and photographed a rock.  Not just any rock, though.  This one had weed on it!  I'm a natural at this game, no doubt.

I spoke with Horse about the non-appearance of seals on the ice, and he said that they had likely gone off to feed for the morning, and would probably back during the afternoon.

So...

During my afternoon break, I made the same trip, to see if I could see some Weddell seals (Wedd... yeah, yeah, whatever).

On the way there, in the mid-afternoon light, I was struck by how alien the landscape looked.  In fact, it looked very similar to the landscapes being photographed by the Mars Curiosity Rover.  With that in mind I took a photo of the landscape with the idea of comparing it to photographs from Mars.

Check this out:

Antarctica

Mars

Incredible, isn't it?  Astonishing similarity.


Anyway...

I walked further down the track, and looked out over the ice and... Weddell seal!

Only they were in a different place this time.  Instead of being near the coast where they had been the night before, now they were at least a kilometre away, right near the ice edge.  Drat.

So, I got a photo.  I had to use the zoom on the camera to its uttermost extremity, and the picture quality is not great...

Weddell seal!

 Eh.  It's kind of in keeping with the standard of photography you've come to expect from this blog.  And, as they say, if you can't be exceptional, be consistent.