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Peter Kinsella's Antarctic Voyage Diary

Monday 29th January 2001, Dry Valleys, Shackleton's & Scott's Huts
( 77° 30.6' S 164° 25.4' E ) & ( 77° 36.7' S 166° 52.6' E )

It’s still difficult to get used to the 24 hour daylight and the inconsistent times of expedition activity. We awoke at 0500 hours to see Beaufort Island and the US Coast Guard icebreaker "Polar Sea" to starboard and Ross Island with its three big ice covered peaks to port (Mt Bird, Mt Terror and Mt Erebus). Cruising along this morning, Tim and I were discussing how in 1841 Captain Ross in his small (by comparison) wooden sailing ship would have been able to handle these conditions. It was the same time of year, so no wind, no 25,000 horse power to push through and no charts. They were either brave or stupid and must have been unbelievable seamen or extremely lucky to complete their journey and survive. As we entered McMurdo Sound there were icebergs, pieces of broken first year ice and ice flows everywhere. The pieces of ice varied in size from as little as 10-20 tonnes up to icebergs of millions of tonnes. There was no clear passage through them so we had to push and dodge and break our way through. A 200 to 300 tonne wooden ship would have no hope particularly when you consider that there was no wind today. We were now headed for the Dry Valleys opposite Ross Island.

Our extraordinary run of luck with the weather continued and at 0900 hours we anchored the ship in fast ice 40 kilometres from the "Dry Valleys" and started to fly guests to the Taylor Valley. Once the ship was stuck fast (it took about an hour), we disembarked via the ladder onto the ice and had a walk around, took photos of an emperor penguin and the ship. The process of flying guests into the valleys took until about 1500 hours because each helicopter carried only 8 passengers and the staff had to set up a base camp ashore first. This was in case the weather turned bad and the helicopters couldn’t fly, leaving people stranded ashore. It was a 35 minute return trip from the ship to the shore base.

Dry Valleys area

The Dry Valley’s area is one of the most unusual places on earth. In no small part because no rain has fallen there for at least two million years. The valleys cover 3000 sq km and have no snow or ice, none can persist there because the air is so dry. They are free of ice because they are not fed by a glacier and the little snow that falls is blown away by Katabatic winds. They were formed during the past 30 million years when the terrain uplifted at a faster rate than the glaciers could cut their way down the through them. Eventually the glaciers were stopped by high necks at the head of each valley. The glacier fronts, which enter from the side melt as fast as they advance. We saw Canada glacier, mummified seals and penguins over 100 years old and marvelled at the dramatic moon-like landscape. It was just fantastic (a word I will probably use often). The only living thing in the whole valley was a type of moss which grows near the trickle of melted ice close to the glacier. We had to be careful not to walk on the moss as it is considered very special.

Today was perfect weather and to cap a fabulous day, when we returned to the ship they had the stairs down so we could have a "picnic lunch" on the ice; hot soup, grilled sausages, jacket potatoes, pasta salad, apple pie, beer, hot wine etc. Sitting outside the ship on the ice, having lunch in brilliant sunshine and under the imposing brow of Mt Erebus was an unforgettable experience. During lunch on the ice I slipped over, tipped my food onto the ice and had to fight a skua bird that wanted my sausage. He didn’t get it! Anytime we leave the ship we leave absolutely nothing behind on the ice or the land. This place is so pristine.

Lunch on the Ross Sea Ice, 35 kilometers from the Dry Valleys

Dominating our stay in the whole Ross Sea area was the magnificent active volcano of Mount Erebus (3780 metres) which is the mountain the NZ jet crashed into back in the late seventies killing 270 people. We were also very fortunate to see this with very little cloud over it. We could see the puff of smoke at the peak of the mountain proving it was still quite active. At 1600 hours we bashed our way out of the ice stern first and headed for Cape Royds.We had dinner at Cape Royds anchored by ice just off the beach on Ross Island.

In the evening we managed to visit the historic huts of Scott at Cape Evans and Shackleton at Cape Royds on Ross Island. Shackleton’s hut was built during his Nimrod polar attempt, 1907-1909. Shackleton is one of my heroes and his feats in saving himself and 27 of his men over a 24 month period is inspirational stuff. Scott established his famous hut in 1911 and is the hut Scott departed from in October 1911 to reach the "Pole" in January 1912, 33 days after Amundsen who was first to the pole. The endurance displayed and tragedy experienced by all these guys is just hard to comprehend. Visiting the huts of these legendary explorers was certainly a highlight of the trip for me.

Peter at Scott's Hut at Cape Evans

At Cape Royds we also met again the original inhabitants of the area - thousands of adelie penguins - in the world's southern most penguin rookery. The visit to the two historic huts was carried out like a military operation. While one group was ferried to Scott’s hut by helicopter, the other group walked across the ice to Shackleton’s hut, about 1km walk. Both huts were in reasonably good condition as the New Zealand Government currently maintains them. The inside of the huts have been left exactly as they were left by the explorers and so tell a vivid story of what life was like. The food, kitchenware, bedding, clothes, some experimental equipment and paper notes have been preserved by the cold and ice. It is not possible to enter the huts unless you have a permit and a New Zealand Government representative travelling with you. The explorers ate seals and used seal blubber as oil for fuel and cooking. There were still stocks of it stacked in each hut. The equipment left in Scott’s Hut at Cape Evans is very comprehensive and the experience was very moving; I wish I had more time in the huts.

Shackleton's hut at Cape Royds, Ross Island

Shackleton’s 1907-1909 expedition, although not as famous in the history books, achieved more than Scott’s famous 1911 push to the South Pole. Between 1907 and 1909 Shackleton managed to climb Mt Erebus, pull sleds to within 100 miles of the South Pole where he had to turn back, and find the position of the South Magnetic Pole at that time.

It had been a long day, up at 5 am and finishing with the now traditional hot vegemite and rum soup after midnight (still broad daylight).