The Journey South

A long time in the making..

So I guess that taking 10 months between my first and second entries probably makes me THE WORST BLOGGER EVER. But I do have a valid excuse: This job is insane!! (Also the Internet connection on our teeny little island is terrible and waiting for web pages to load takes a long old time!)

So in an effort to catch up, I will start doing a few short entries starting with the trip down:

The Journey South

After a horribly tearful goodbye to my family I shuffled onto the minibus and off towards RAF Brize Norton. From there we flew to the Ascension Islands where we stumbled off the plane and into a caged area where we stood around for a while, got rained on and then hopped back onto the re-fuelled plane. While in the ‘cage’ I noticed a sticker from the University Air Squadron that I had been in when I was a student. It’s only a small thing, but it made me smile at the thought of people I knew being here before me, standing in the same place, so far from home.

Toilet stop at Ascension Island where previous visitors had left their marks.

  

The rest of the flight was long, long, long, but we eventually arrived in the sunny and very windy Falklands. I got far too excited about the penguin stamp in my passport before my dodgy looking face got me stopped at security for a bag check. After opening 5 different pockets of my rucksack, which all promptly exploded with packets of sweets (lovingly wedged in there by my Mum), an exasperated security man sent me off shaking his head and convinced that I was headed to the sub-Antarctic with nothing but 60 litres of vegetarian Haribo.

Memorising what sunshine feels like next to the Whale-bone Arch

We bundled onto a mini bus which got us half way across the island before the side fell off. The bus driver pulled over and a few of us took the opportunity to dart up the nearest hillock, before it was decided that "it’ll probably be fine" and we hurtled off towards the ship which was waiting in Stanley harbour. After a whistle-stop tour of Stanley, (a weirdly hot and sunny ghost town) we boarded the RRS James Clarke Ross for the final stage of the journey!!

Commerson's Dolphins circling the JCR as we wait to set sail

I love being at sea, but unfortunately my body does not. Somewhere on the list of requirements for a Marine Biologist is written "sturdy old sea legs" however I seem to have missed that. I did my usual trick of swallowing sea-sickness tablets like Smarties and spending every waking hour out on deck looking for whales and being blasted in the face by the winds of the Southern Ocean which seemed to work ok, still I counted down the days until we reached the island.

Fighting off the sea sickness with a refreshing breeze!

Waiting to get on the RIB. Just a little bit excited...

Bird Island is a tricky place to land and its not unusual for ships to have to wait a few days for calmer seas before sending the RIBs down. Luckily, the sea was calm enough for us to go straight to the island without delays. Everyone but Penguin Man and I went in the first RIB-load, and we were left giddy with excitement on the snowy deck, unable to see the island through the mist but happily watching the fur seals that were swimming past the boat in small groups. Then all of a sudden we were off the JCR and speeding away to our new home!!