Race Across Antarctica

After Bird Island's triumph in the Rebel Race last winter we were looking forward to this year's fitness challenge with a degree of trepidation, knowing we had something to live up to and would be without the influential Craig.

This year sees the return of the official race, organised by those in Cambridge with teams from there, the ships and the bases completing a distance of either 2,840km (Scott's Terra Nova route from Cape Evans to the pole and back again), 6,000km (across the continent from Cape Hope to Cape Adare) or a monumental 12,000km (a 'grand tour' that takes in many of the research stations). We've a ten week window to complete our chosen distance and, like most of the 26 teams entering, we will be going for the 6,000km trek.

We've put together our team of six – the four of us on base plus the other two field assistants who have just got back to the UK and are keen to retain their Bird Island fitness in the presence of such mainland luxuries as take-away food.

Activities have been weighted with different scores based around world record speeds, hence 1km cycling = 2.5km running / walking = 3km rowing = 10km swimming. We have machines for all but the latter, which sadly is off the list of events until I get somewhere warmer. With less outdoor work to do and with the nights drawing in we've plenty of time to get moving.

Here's a few pictures of what else has been happening recently:

Wandering Albatross are starting to head off to spend the winter at sea.
The last few unpaired ones are still dancing round like the singles left in a club at 2am.

A possible last opportunity for established pairs to spend time together before spending all their time feeding and bringing back food for their tubby, fluffy chick who will otherwise be left alone for the next six months,

While the Macaroni Penguins have headed out to sea and won't return to land before October, the Gentoos stay closer and often come ashore in large numbers in the evening.

Grey-headed Albatross are continuing to feed their chicks, although it won't be long before they follow the Black-brows in starting to fledge and head off themselves.

As the days get shorter there's more of a chance of being out to see a sunset. Though there won't be many like this, with a clear sky.

Clear skies also mean good opportunities for stargazing.

With the majority of Giant Petrel chicks having fledged the adults gather together to discuss the breeding season. 

Great views across the South Georgia mainland from near the tip of La Roche.

Testing the ice on the frozen ponds.

On a final note, congratulations to my previous workplace Skokholm, on it's official re-opening as a UK BirdObservatory. An amazing amount of hard work and changes have happened there in the last five years.

Jerry.

Winter fitness

After a hectic summer which left me at probably the lightest weight I've been in my adult life I, like the others, was determined not to let the winter be a time of piling on the pounds while lazing in my dressing gown in front of the TV. Or, more likely, in front of a pile of krill.

The weekly weigh-in

So we re-instigated the 'Fat Knacker' award for the person who puts on the most weight. Consistency being key to any good science, every Wednesday we dress up in our special costumes for the weigh-in. I've fluctuated each week since late March, but while I'm still significantly less than my pre-Bird Island weight I appear to have put on more than the others. Disappointingly no one has got anywhere near actual fat though and we're more like models worrying about half a kilogram because someone ate more cake than was recommended.

Shaun T

We started off following the set of fitness DVDs left by the previous winterers. A 45-minute routine of being shouted at by an over-enthusiastic American while jumping about ridiculously. Unfortunately, without the complete set of exercises and stretches we started injuring ourselves and had to call a stop to the stupidity.

Race Across Antarctica

Following the midwinter week we took part in the Race Across Antarctica, put together by the Halley doc, James. He'd measured out the following distances; Bird Island to King Edward Point (102km), KEP to Rothera (2222km) and Rothera to Halley (1668km). This gave a daunting total of 3992km. So it was halved to a target distance of 1996km.

Race route: BI --> KEP --> R --> Z. 

All the bases have a variety of gym equipment and different scales were attached to different activities so that rowing was worth more than running or x-country skiing, which were worth more than cycling or walking.

Hannah and Steph working out the distances of daily walking routes. Every little counts (although we didn't include walking up and down the corridor and trips to the toilet).

As an act of fairness to us at the tiny base, only 4 people's distances could be entered per day. This still left us at a disadvantage as we couldn't afford to have any days off. But with that handicap came the incentive to win, or at least push the bigger bases all the way. And guess what... we won! It was close, but some monumental cycle and rowing sessions, particularly from Craig, saw us over the imaginary line.

Keeping track of daily distances.

It's now about a month until I have to start regular checks of the penguin nesting beaches all over the island so I just need to keep the fitness levels up so it's not too much of a shock to the system.

Jerry.