Last trip to Skomer

This week sees my last few days in the office in Cambridge before spending some time back in the Lake District. The weekend just gone was a fun one though...

I headed down to Pembrokeshire on Friday night, to The Griffin in Dale, where people had gathered for what should have been the final episode of Dream Island, the documentary about Skokholm made over the last two years (due to last weeks football it was actually episode 5, the last one is next week). It was great to see assorted programme-makers, boatmen and volunteers, as well as Chris and Sarah, enjoying our work and applauding loudly during the end credits.

South Haven, Skomer

Despite all expectations the weekend was sunny and calm and we were able to get over to Skomer. Porpoise passed us on the way, seeming to celebrate my return. It's a lovely time of year to be there as the low sun brings out the greens and browns of dying vegetation, while plenty of migratory birds are making their way through. There wasn't anything too rare this weekend but it really felt like autumn as Sunday morning brought several hundred thrushes as well as finches and others passing overhead. Flocks of Jackdaws and Starlings are hanging around, enough to hear the 'wooooosh' as they fly past.

Grey Seals on North Haven beach.

Probably the real draw of this time of year though are the Grey Seal pups. It's the middle of the season down on Skomer and around 130 had been born already. A big storm last week had moved them around a little, with big waves picking up some and depositing them on different beaches. This can potentially be very bad news as pups get injured, cold or separated from their mothers, but the majority we saw were sleeping away all fat and happy.

Fat, healthy, moulted pup on the slipway.

Because of the storms and the high number of pups still being born Dave is very busy running round recording and identifying them. We got to go with him down to the bottom of The Wick, an exciting part of Skomer only accessed at this time of year. A bit of a scramble takes you down to the shingle where many years worth of driftwood has piled up and young seals are surprisingly camouflaged. The seal pups are marked with an agricultural dye on their white coat. This moults before they head off on their own and is used to differentiate them and record how successful a season it has been. There was one or two particularly aggressive mothers down The Wick so it was useful to have one person distracting them while the other nipped in and marked the pup. I'll report how different work on Bird Island is, where each angry seal is surrounded by thousands of other angry seals.

 Trip down to the bottom of The Wick to mark and record seal pups.

We departed on Sunday afternoon and stopped briefly by my Grandma's house, a wonderful place looking out over Tenby and the beach, where I spent many happy childhood holidays. It's the last time I'll see it as it's being sold, so saying goodbye was harder than saying goodbye to many people. There was time for an stroll down to the beach in the evening sun before stopping at another pub for tea.

Looking along the beach to Tenby.

A damp day in Cardiff followed by a long train journey back to foggy Cambridge couldn't detract from the joy of two sunny days on the Pembrokeshire islands, including my last chance to swim in the sea.

Jerry.

Training continued.

A month to go now before I depart. We got the disappointing news the other day that our flights have been put back from the 7th to the 11th November. The ship is due to leave the Falklands on 13th and we were looking forward to a few days exploring there, but I doubt we'll get to do that now. We'll be taking the quickest and most direct route possible; flying from Brize Norton to the Falklands via Ascension Island, then on the RRS James Clark Ross to Bird Island. That'll take us five days (if the sea's calm enough to get straight in to BI, if not we may get to see a bit of King Edward Point and Grytviken on South Georgia as she unloads there).
After the excitement of conference and field course it was a bit frustrating to be back in the office when we really just wanted to get going, especially as others have already departed, at least on their pre-deployment holidays. But we've had quite a variety of other courses to keep us busy, mainly introductions to lab, biosample and data record management and identifying squid beaks and otoliths (fish ear bones) so we can work out what our animals are eating.

We had interesting tours yesterday of the aquarium and ice-core store. In the latter we got to play with some 20,000 year old ice while in the former we saw a range of weird creatures - bright sea lemons, large sea spiders and an old fish.

The weather's generally been pretty good in Cambridge, though there's a noticeable chill and darkness when I leave and return to the house. I've been jogging to work fairly regularly to try and ensure I'll be fit enough to keep up with the guys already down there when we have to stride out over the notoriously difficult tussock grass.

One of the stupidly ostentatious Cambridge colleges I go past on my journey to work.

It's been a few years since I was on the mainland at this time of year so I'm rediscovering the spectacular autumn colours as the trees turn yellow and red. On Skomer and Skokholm the few trees that there are tend to lose their leaves all in one go with the first severe autumn storm, over here I can collect conkers and kick big piles of leaves.

Enjoying time in the woods before I leave for another treeless island.

Pre-deployment training

The last two weeks have been filled with the pre-deployment conference - a very busy time in which we're told and taught everything we need to know.

This started last Sunday afternoon when Girton College opened it's doors to 100 or so scientists, technical staff, field assistants, chefs and doctors heading to Bird Island, South Georgia, Signy, Rothera and Halley as well as those going further into the field like the Subglacial Lake Ellsworth team.

The official photo of those going south in 2012/13

We started off with a lot of meetings with our teams and talks about our specific locations as well as being informed on more general company type stuff. Mixed in with this were presentations about bits of research going on in different disciplines across the continent. There was a lot of first aid training, as you'd imagine, with many varied practice scenarios thrown at us in quick succession. Amongst the rest of it we got to practice (not play) with fire extinguishers and were taught all about teamwork from the classroom.

Probably my favourite part was the Sea Survival Training in Lowestoft. This involved an early start and a load more Powerpoint, but after lunch we got in the pool for real training. We ran through a few drills and ended up with an 'abandon ship' scenario; mostly pitch black with occasional flashing lights and the noise of the wind machines whipping the pool up to about 5ft swell as the sprinklers rained down cold showers. We had to run up stairs, put life-jackets on, drop the 3m into the water, swim over to the raft and get everyone in and safe. We possibly carried on a bit too long as we started desperately bailing out with our shoes, but you could feel the adrenaline flowing through the group. We all survived and were pretty efficient, and from what I understand the Southern Oceans aren't that different from a heated pool in Suffolk.

Following a week of glorious sunshine we were enthusiastic about our trip up to Derbyshire for the Field Course. As you probably know, this turned out to be in the middle of the worst September storms for 30 years. Our campsite was a mudbath when we arrived and we spent the first evening learning basic campcraft stuck inside a tent.

Our dining room. Note the mud and puddles.

The next day we got out to Curbar Edge to learn how to rescue ourselves and others from crevasses. So we abseiled down and jumared back up the cliff in between sheltering from the elements. Even though Bird Island doesn't have any crevasses I hope some of this will be useful in the future. It's a while since I've abseiled and I haven't used the jumars before, so it felt worth it.

Sheltered behind a rock on Curbar Edge.

 Hannah, concentrating more on the camera than the large drop below.

Chris, jumarring back up the cliff.

Sandwiches and tea in a cramped cave.

Back at the site we ran through a couple of search and rescue drills before cooking and heading to the pub, where we filled a large room with wet coats, boots, socks and other layers.

Eagle Rock and a Highland Cattle we passed on our walk back.

 Practicing search and rescue in a simulated blizzard.

Drying off in the pub. See the pile of wet clothes behind us.

We were back on the ridge the next day, running through navigation and more search drills in the rain, fog and boggy ground that sounds quite representative of Bird Island. 

 Another lovely day in the Peak District.

More white-out search and rescue.

We headed back to Cambridge that afternoon, a day early but I think another night in the rain and mud might have broken our spirits. I know it'll be colder and wetter down south but I'll also be better equipped and with a base to go back to.

It's been hectic but good fun. It was great to meet so many others who are heading south and finding about what they're going to be doing. I look forward to hearing their stories and seeing photos once we're out there.

Team Bird Island: Hannah (seals), Jerry (penguins), Chris (buildings), Tamsin (base commander) & Steph (albatrosses).

1st week training

This time last week I was still frantically trying to find somewhere to live in Cambridge. Happily that got sorted in time for my arrival late on Sunday to start with an early walk across town and my first day at work.

There's been a lot of information thrown at us but it's been a fairly relaxed week so we've had plenty of time to read through it. There's been lots of meetings with former Bird Island residents and others who've travelled the Antarctic; people with plenty of stories and advice that've got us all excited. I've got a running list of extra bits of kit I should be taking, from chocolate to knee-pads.

The office space is somewhat different from Skokholm. The view here isn't as good, but I didn't have to make the desk from old kitchen cupboards. I'm afraid the array of skulls in the Skokholm office is easily beaten by the stuffed Chinstrap Penguin on one desk here.

It's been a really sunny, hot week here and cycling to and from work would have been a pleasure if it wasn't for a bike that sometimes loses it's chain three times in five miles. I need to work out a route that doesn't get lost among the colleges and I can start jogging in.

Packing and fitting

My working life with BAS starts properly on Monday, so I'm enjoying my last weekend in Cardiff before heading over to Cambridge.

I was there earlier in the week, filling a packing case with a load of clothes and other bits of junk. Mostly things to keep me entertained through the long winter - a variety of art stuff and a hard drive full of films being the most obvious examples. I also checked over my BAS issue kit bag, checking the boots, thermals, fleeces, hat, gloves, jackets and insulated boiler suit all fit me. Although a fairly functional task it was quite exciting thinking about next time I'm going to be wearing those clothes it's going to be for real.

Prior to this packing I was back home very briefly and before that spending my last week on Skokholm. It was the first week of autumn work parties and you can read more about it here and here.

It felt great to be back, there's always a great sense of camaraderie when the work parties are going on and I'm sorry to be leaving before seeing everything to completion.

The Skokholm team (with apologies to the departed Molly); Will, Teresa, Me, Leighton and Lewis.

Before leaving I accomplished two things that felt like making my mark on the island. Firstly, burning a lot of my accommodation and, secondly, hiding a gnome in a mystery spot.

I look forward to checking up on these in two years time.

My final view of Skokholm before disappearing around the corner into Martin's Haven.

Jerry.

Hyper-Bala

We've been staying in a cottage near Bala, North Wales, for most of the week, with Ric, Nic and Paddy. The plan was just for a nice holiday with no real agenda. The previous week had been gloriously sunny and hot while this one promised wind and rain. 

With it lashing it down the first morning we decided to avoid the mountains and headed up to Alwen Reservoir. Shortly after we arrived it got much warmer, so much so that Charlotte and I, who had decided to run around the reservoir we soon stripped down to the bare minimum of clothing.

Picking bilberries while waiting for the others to return. Later in the week we had them all over cheesecake.

Who can resist crushing a handful of berries and squashing them into your mouth?

The next day we headed up to the white water rafting centre on the Tryweryn. This was the principle reason for coming to this part of the country as we did a bit of rafting in Sri Lanka but found it too warm.

We got four good runs down, highlights included paddling hard upstream into a large rapid so that Charlotte and Nichola got soaked (picture below), me half falling out and drifting along with the boat for ages before before Ric and Charlotte managed to pull me back in, and Paddy shouting 'urgh... it's wet' when a wave hit him.

The weather the next day looked better so we decided to go for it and hit Snowdon. It was quite a late start and longish journey over, so by the time we got there we had to park pretty far away and we thought we'd have to walk several km up the road before starting the mountain. But then along came the bus and we were on our way.

We started off up the Pyg Track, before Charlotte and I split from the others and headed up Crib Goch.

The low clouds lifted as we ascended so we had clear views of the ridge and it was just about clear when we got to the summit.

We only passed about 20 other walkers along the route and there was a sense of camaraderie as we all felt superior to the hoards going up the main tracks and those going up the train.

We met the others near the top, just as they were starting to descend. After pushing through the crowds to touch the trig point we got a cup of tea and found a quieter area to eat our sandwiches. We headed down the Miner's Track quite quickly, trying to catch the others, but interrupted our rush for a quick swim. Then down to finish with an ice cream.

The day after that was far wetter, so we headed out to do a gorge walk near Dolgarrog, Conwy. Pulling up in the car park we knew we were in the right place as a large school group was getting kitted up in full wetsuits, buoyancy aids and helmets. We headed out in t-shirts and shorts, dashing to get in front of them. This was a pretty good scramble with enough water coming down to get wet. Some of the climbing was quite tricky, with slippery wet holds, and I ignored one part after watching Ric jump balls-first onto a rock below a hard bit. When we got back to the car it was really raining hard so we headed back for a lazy afternoon.

Too Much Fun

After a day trying to avoid the rain, during which we still managed some fun stuff like traversing the cliffs round Humphrey Head, we decided to head over to Wasdale Head and have a go at scrambling up Ill Gill on Kirk Fell.

Turns out this is definitely several stages harder than the ones we'd been doing the last few days.

The volume of water coming down wasn't too much of a problem. But when we got to a bit we couldn't pass I foolishly suggested we climb up the side of the gorge rather than go back downstream a bit. After a worrying climb through mud, heather, gorse and crumbling rock we were relieved to get onto solid ground.

After a short breather we went back into the gorge, but soon found ourselves avoiding the algae-covered main stream and on very fragile, crumbly rock on the edge. After a bit of a fall we decided we were fed up of trying to kill ourselves and headed back down.

Our original plan had been to climb Ill Gill one day, then bivvy out somewhere again and go play in the River Esk the next day, But after our trials we decided to head down the Duddon Valley and go for a swim in the Froth Pot.

While it looks a beautiful spot, and a great place to swim, the amount of water coming down meant getting very far against the current was really difficult. So I decided to head further upstream to jump in and drift down. There I learnt the true meaning of the phrase "look before you leap".

Jumping shin-first into a boulder just under the water's surface was the last straw for that day. We were done feeling like we were in Final Destination, so packed up and came home.

The next day we decided for something more sedate. As we'd been driving home we'd seen a sign for a 'geocaching megaevent'. I'd kind of explained to Charlotte what geocaching is (a man leaves some stuff in a box in the woods for other men to find) and we thought we'd give it a go. After an unsuccessful first attempt we were becoming frustrated so for the second one used map, gps and website instructions and hints,

And we found it. I'm not sure it was as rewarding as we'd hoped, but we celebrated by eating some blackberries.

Further on through the woods near Milnthorpe we found an old abandoned cottage in the woods. Spooky, what would we discover inside?

An old dirty photo, obviously.

Overall a good excuse for a day out.