In and around Mactown

McMurdo (Mactown) is the largest base on the continent. Summer population often exceeds 1000 people. Because it is on the coast, and close to a lot of mountains, most of the oceanographic and biological science gets done here, in addition to glaciology, petrology, geology, ice studies etc. McMurdo is also close to the Dry Valleys, one of the most interesting areas on the continent, if not the world. By some quirk of nature/geology, the Dry Valleys have not received any rain or precipitation for over 2 million years (at least that is what the scientists tell us). Also, it is extremely windy here, so much so that there is no snow or ice accumulation in the Dry Valleys. In addition, a large number of fossils (including some dinosaurs) have been found here.

Right outside McMurdo is Mt Erebus, an active volcano. Why people would place the largest base in Antarctica right under an active volcano, I have no idea. The volcano gives rise to one of my main reasons for disliking McMurdo…a fine, gritty, black volcanic dust that is irritating and manages to find its way into everything. Also, the food Mactown is nowhere near as good as Pole’s. The one good thing about Mactown, though, is the scenery. A couple days in Mactown will almost surely guarantee at least one penguin or seal encounter, and the mountains surrounding the base make for some postcard-perfect shots.

A somewhat overexposed shot of Erebus. Check out the clouds though, and the ones in this pic

I think my favorite thing about Antarctica is the skies and the clouds. I have seen some simply amazing skies here…blues so blue that you simply stand and gaze in wonder. The clouds are the whitest and puffiest clouds you’ll ever see. I guess the continent makes up in intensity what it lacks in variety. There are only a couple of colors on Antarctica, the dominant one of course being the never-ending, blinding white of the ice. There’s the blue of the sky, and the brilliant blaze of yellow from the sun. Nothing else really. No green whatsoever. Of course, during the white-outs, you get only one color—white.

A seal and the icebreaker cutting a channel out in the sound for the re-supply ship, which comes through once a year. If it wasn’t for the frigid cold they have to live in, I think being a seal might not be too bad…all they do is lie around and waddle about all day long…oh and dodge killer whales and great whites…

More seals along the coast...

The White and Black Islands. The Black Island is highly windswept, and hence has very little snow cover.

The C-17 flight back to new Zealand got cancelled for over a week because of mechanical problems. There were people in Mactown who had been stuck there since Christmas and they were about to pull their hair out. Anyway, someone got quite sick and they had to make an emergency medevac flight out and her bad luck was my good luck because I got scheduled out on that same flight. The same thing happened last time: we had been stuck in Mactown for days and were going absolutely crazy when somebody died out on the ocean and for some reason they had to get the body off the ice ASAP so they had an emergency flight and I got on it (actually I volunteered, alot of people were leery about flying back to NZ with a corpse but Lisandro and I were ready to get out of McMurdo).

Aaah, an old friend, the C130 Hercules. The flight is 3 1/2 hours longer than on the C17 and atleast 3 1/2 times more uncomfortable...