Part III: Antarctica and Academe - Scott Polar Research Institute

papers and Nelson was transmitting X-rays by slow scan and satcom to Aberdeen.
The experiment seemed to be going well. I went up to base in the afternoon; it took
about 11/2 hrs by snowcat at 10-12 mph. I looked around a bit more the better to
familiarise myself with the activities and spoke to more people about their work.
There were a few telegrams in, including from Eric Salmon and Marj Hallett, (my
Secretary) telling me all was well back at the ranch! I was also very pleased to hear
that Andrew had had an offer from Oxford – St Edmund’s Hall - in engineering,
economics and management.
There was a good dinner that evening, followed by drinks and talk in a very
happy atmosphere. Phil Anderson showed some video films made by some of the
base members - wind and drift past the base, emperor penguins and chicks, skidoos
in Windy Creek. They were really quite good at conveying the environment and the
large projection screen on the new video equipment was successful. I gave my usual
talk to the base at 9 o’clock, speaking for about an hour and answering questions. It
was all well-received and seemed to go down well; no problems surfaced.
Afterwards Tony Maggs presented Nelson with a pencil drawing of emperors and
signatures of all the winterers to commemorate his return. (He had wintered at
Halley as a doctor years before). Paul Aslin (Winter BC) presented me with a
beautiful scale model of a Nansen sledge, made by Dale Heaton, the carpenter. It
was very good indeed - made of ashwood, from a runner of an old Nansen sledge
that had been to the Hinge Zone. I was delighted and very pleased to be given it. It
was a convivial time and we retired eventually at 00.30 am. The bunks were very
comfortable and we had sleeping bags.
I was called at 7 o’clock on Christmas Day, having slept well 'underground'. It
was a 'dingle' day viewed from the top of the stairs. I again spent the morning
looking around outside: walked to the gash dump and the fuel dumps to take
photos, but found I was out of film so returned later. I re-visited the various science
cabooses. Work was continuing on the Armco (corrugated steel) extension to the
garage ramp, which keeps the garage accessible (for overhaul) to vehicles from the
surface. It was proceeding slowly. I also watched the raising of one of the jackable
science cabooses. It was lovely under the blue sky with the limitless white plain,
snow crystals glinting like diamonds in the sun. We had soup for lunch and then
went off to the emperor penguin colony at Penguin Creek - a good way to spend
Christmas Day. We took a snowcat and the Maudheim (boxed) sledge. The camera
crew (Joel and Luisa) came along and four others. Keith Christie ski-jored behind on
a rope. The distance was about 12 km and the clouds were moving in. There was
some doubt whether we could get down onto the sea ice, but Keith receded and
found one place on a small cliff, where the drift had slumped away from the ice cliff,
leaving a narrow crevasses, where we could climb down an alloy climbing ladder.
Once over that it was an easy walk down a steep snowbank.
From the top of the cliffs the penguins were seen to be very spread out on the fast
ice, but there were four concentrations. The black dots on the ice were reminiscent of
the wildebeest herds on the Serengeti Plains! Set against the flat white ice cliffs (on
this dull day) and a deep purple-black water sky it was very dramatic. The clouds
were very like a watercolour painting - with a lemon-yellow-greenish sky below.
The birds were nearly all chicks with a few adults - perhaps 10,000 in all. We spread
out to observe and take photos. Jon Shanklin had his video camera in its case -
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