Port Lockroy Update
Last of the season - 3rd March - 6th March 2010
This week we have mostly been stock-taking – closing down the
base and leaving it ready for next season’s team. But in honesty we
have all really been ‘taking stock’ – of all that has happened over
the last four months and all that we have seen. Tonight is our final
night at Lockroy and this time tomorrow we will be at sea – heading
north aboard Antarctic Dream for our last few ventures south
of 60 degrees.
Our final ship is aptly named, as we have been thinking over
the summer we have spent together in this other-worldly existence.
Illusion and reality come in equal measure in Antarctica: an
apparently empty and desolate landscape in fact teems with life and
activity, and white snow as far as the eye can see is injected with
blues and greens in almost every berg that drifts by. The past and
the future have lived side by side at Lockroy too this summer, with
a living historic monument and the reconstruction of the Nissen hut.
We have been living side by side too, for four months, in one room,
on a tiny speck of rock, which have been some of the happiest months
of our lives. Under Anna’s careful leadership and the team efforts
of all, life on base has been egalitarian, fair and fun. We have
shared all our food, all our knowledge and all the daily chores, but
we have also shared our highs, our lows and everything in between.
The continent is one of extremes too – the coldest, windiest,
driest, highest, often described as the most hostile environment on
earth – which we know to perhaps be the friendliest, simplest, most
innocent and uncorrupted continent, where everyone is welcomed and
the sunshine does exist.
We have been thinking this week about why we wanted to come,
about what we thought we would see and hoped to achieve, and have
realised that perhaps not all that much has changed since those
first Tabarin boys came down themselves, for what Vivian Fuchs
writes in ‘Of Ice and Men’ could just as well be written about the
four of us: “For them it was exploration it its true sense, new
lands, wild country and extreme conditions. Whatever part they
played, every individual has enjoyed the sense of battle with
nature, the wonder and beauty of an unknown world, and the
achievement of survival and success”.
And it has been a greatly successful season, which would not
have been possible without the help of so many people. We are
indebted in the first place to the UKAHT for giving us this
incredible opportunity, in particular to Rachel and Tudor Morgan and
Philippa Foster Back, for putting their faith in us, giving us the
chance to come South, supporting us throughout and allowing us to
see and feel for ourselves what makes Antarctica so special. We know
now how important Antarctic heritage is – to tell the stories of all
those who came before us and who have helped shape all that
Antarctica stands for today.
We are also deeply grateful to all the suppliers and sponsors who
have made this season possible, through logistics, transport, food,
kit, building supplies and more, and all the passing ships and
yachts and familiar faces at Lockroy who have fed us, showered us
with hospitality and let us use their hot showers on numerous
occasions to ‘de-penguin’ for a welcome few hours!
Thank you also to all the visitors to Lockroy this season,
who, simply by coming, have helped to save the base and all the
other bases which have just come under the custodianship of the
UKAHT, each with their own fascinating tales to tell, which can now
be told to others through visitor help and support.
If the past informs the future, we are all certainly leaving
Lockroy with an inheritance of our own that will shape our paths
ahead. Antarctic history is still a relatively recent field, and as
the last team to live in Bransfield House, and having witnessed
‘living history’ with the Nissen hut rebuild, we feel we are a tiny
part of the story too. But where will we go now and what will we do
next? These are the questions we have been pondering over the last
few days, and will continue to think on for the next few weeks to
come. We are all heading off for a few weeks’ travelling now,
scattered between South America and New Zealand, but will be
reunited at a debrief weekend in April when we look forward to
seeing the Morgans to swap stories and catch up.
But tonight will be the last night anyone will spend in the
bunkroom of Bransfield House. Rick, Joe and Graham are kindly
cooking us dinner and we’ll spend the evening with them in the cosy
new Nissen Hut, before climbing back into our sleeping bags one last
time. But although this season is coming to an end, I have no doubt
the next one will be even more exciting, and contribute to the next
chapter of Antarctic history yet to be written. The constants at
Lockroy will still be there for whoever comes to the island next:
the weather, the wildlife, the ever-changing moods of the Antarctic
Peninsula and the building which a few have had the privilege to
call ‘home’. We will be taking with us only new friendships, new
experiences, a sense of Antarctic responsibility, and a final line
from Fuchs which epitomises our season together:
‘The wonderfully clear days, the sight of new rock beyond the snow
rise, the tremendous feeling of freedom among the mountains and
glaciers, the close comradeship which develops in isolated groups
from shared experience and the growth of mutual confidence: these
are the lasting memories’.
Eleanor
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Anna
Claire
Eleanor
Rachel
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