Sunday, January 31, 2010

Boondoggle to Tent Island


A boondoggle in the Antarctic vernacular is not a waste of time or money, nor a way to look busy, rather the term is used for morale trips. Most require some kind of manual labor, instead for mine I got to escort 4 scientists' in search of abandoned penguin colonies. Here we arrived on Tent Island, just a 15 minute helo ride over the Ross Sea Ice. We were dropped off and the helicopter would return 4 hours later to pick us up.


Steve scopes out possible sites down at the waters edge. We are actually a few miles up from the water here before making the careful trek down. Although overcast and gray it was the perfect day, somewhere below freezing and no wind.


Rewarded with amazing views I watched the wildlife traffic in and out of the water. Whales criss crossed each other in pods and the penguins, always so playful skimming over the water and on and off again the ice..

No comments:

Post a Comment