In Search of Penguin Poo…

December 3, 2009   

SFYC SFYC burgee at Fossil Bluff Fuel Depot Lat. 71° 20? S, Long. 68° 17? W

So it is Thursday and I had on of the coolest experiences of my life on monday and haven’t had the time to write about it. I flew a twin otter for 5 hours on monday out of the 9 hours of flight time. That’s right I actually flew the plane 🙂 and I am now in love with flying it is so similar to sailing. At some points we were 200 feet above the ice.. Tomorrow I am going out again if the weather is good enough.

So Henry here are pictures of Aunty Ash flying the plane!
flying

I spent the morning from 7am shifting three container loads of food into the food store most of the boxes were 30kg each so I was glad to get out of it and go flying. We left at 10:30am from Rothera and it was the most beautiful flying day of the season according to my pilot Doug. Fitted to the planes underbody we had a massive SLR camera and were tasked to go take pictures of an Emperor penguin colony the other side of the Antarctic Peninsula and also some pictures of sea ice. The project is based around the finding of penguin colonies using satellite imagery which was announced in June this year.
magiccamera The very large view finder of the camera under our plane!

We stopped first at Fossil Bluff which is a fuel depot which I will be sent to man sometime this season. Tony who is down there this week is Rothera’s electrician and he joked that the best job he had ever had was one of a fuel attendant! It really is a beautiful place to be.
refuelling

After refuelling we took off for the other side of the peninsula to the colony which had been found using satellite images. I had been told by the guys who were going to Halley that I would miss out on seeing Emperor Penguins well I didn’t I just saw them from 2000 feet!
penguins

We were meant to fly north to get more pictures of sea ice however, the cloud cover came down and we headed back to Fossil Bluff for more fuel and for a cup of tea at the melon hut.
melonhut

By the time we got back to base it was 8:30pm and time for a late dinner and then I headed up the hill to camp at the caboose to finish off an amazing day down south!

pilotash
One last picture for Henry – the big plane – Dash 7 in the hanger.
dash

 

6 Responses to “In Search of Penguin Poo…”

  1. Myles December 4th, 2009 at 6:30 pm

    so cool!

  2. mum December 5th, 2009 at 1:22 am

    So Dad staggered in from bed and said “so she finally did what we always said she should” how parent like is that!!!! did you really drink tea?? The pics are incredible, just flew with delightful lady pilot, hope to see her again and refer her to your blog Love the fact that the planes are orange, think you should have holly to decorate the plane at christmas, is that allowed, will pick some from our tree

  3. Henry December 5th, 2009 at 7:57 am

    Thanks for the great plane photos I hope your flying is better than your driving Can i have picture of the one we went to england on?

  4. admin December 5th, 2009 at 12:26 pm

    Of course I didn’t drink tea mum – how silly would that be! The planes are red not orange they just come out orange in the pictures. The holly wouldn’t make it until after I am left!

    Henry/Daniel – haha…. I don’t have a picture of the plane we went to England on you will have to ask grandma for that!

  5. Rebecca December 6th, 2009 at 8:54 pm

    Ash

    When you man the fuel station later in the season will you be there alone? Will you live in the bubble hut? And is the person refuleing the plane really wearing a t-shirt and capri pants in Antarctica!

    Glad you are having fun and I love the photos…I can hardly wait for your book to come out so I can put it on my coffee table.

    Keep safe 🙂

  6. Tina Lundh December 17th, 2009 at 8:07 pm

    Ashley:
    So cool to hear of your adventures!!
    Please send a pic of the SFYC burgee @ Fossill Bluff, so I can send to the SFYC Bulletin.
    I don’t believe anyone has done that before!!
    Wow! Penguin pack looks huge.
    Didn’t know that you were going to fly PLANES! Thought you were “just” deep diving and operating boats and cranes-you are my idol!
    Cheers and looking forward to your further adventures!
    T