Christmas and Goodbyes - Monday to Sunday - 20 December to 26 December

This has been a week of contrasts, saying goodbye to Jeroen, Katrine and Lourens who are heading back to Tristan on the Edinburgh, and for Jeroen, the long trip back to New Zealand via Cape Town.

Leaving the island on the "Fifty Pence piece", the M.V. Edinburgh in the background

Once the Edinburgh has left we are marooned on Gough until she returns in early February. It was sad to say goodbye to Lourens and Katrine, who had been really nice to the lonely, bored South African on Tristan, but they have work to complete.

Skua

This week has been enjoyable otherwise, on Wednesday myself, Ross and Michelle hiked over to the Giant Petrel to put marker rings on the legs of the chicks. The colony is on the Western side of the island, about 8km from the base. To get there you have to hike up from the base towards South Peak and across Gonydale, a high altitude (for Gough) wetland where the Tristan Albatross breed.

Tristan Albatross

Once we had crossed Gonydale and had moved over Cooper's Col to the Western side of the island, the weather became terrible. The wind picked up and was blowing so hard that at times it was difficult to walk and the clouds dropped lower until we were walking in a complete whiteout. Fortunately we quickly traversed around West Rowett peak and dropped down to the Giant Petrel colony.

The Giant Petrel colony with Saddle Island in the background

We quickly put up the tents and then went over to the colony to start ringing chicks. I must say that Petrels are not my favorite birds, they are ungainly and ugly. I now have even more reason to dislike them. When the chicks  feel threatened, as they do when you approach to grab them before attaching the tag, they spit a mixture of fish oil and vomit all over you. It stinks to high heaven and is extremely nauseating. To make matters worse it began to pour with rain. There is nothing quite like crawling around on your hands and knees in bird vomit to make your day. We tagged the first half of the colony (about 80 chicks) and then went to bed.  We discovered that the tent leaked right over my bed and had to jury rig a survival bag and a jacket to keep me more or less dry for the night. Not the best night of my life for sure!

Wind driven rain

The following morning the rain stopped and we were able to tag the rest of the chicks and start the long walk home.

There are two rivers on the Western approach to the base that can become impassable after heavy rain but fortunately we where able to cross with only some wet feet. It was three very bedraggled and smelly people who arrived back at the base in desperate need of a hot shower and hot meal.

And then it was Christmas...