End of the beginning - 21 March to 27 March

 Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
-Winston Churchill


I hope no one thinks I am being pretentious by beginning with a quote, especially one from one of the most quoted men ever but it seemed apt as Monday the 21st marked six months until we stand on South African soil again and see family and friends face to face (and get to eat fresh fruit and vegetables - I'm not sure which I am looking forward to the most actually, sorry mom).


Anyway, back to the news and in the news this week, not much actually. So I thought that I might as well get around to answering some of the questions that I have been asked and most popular is:

Hungry Tristan chick

Describe a typical week - I thought that I had covered that but obviously some of you don't think so; so here goes. A typical week is well, typical of most weeks else where. I work fairly normal hours, roughly 0800 to 1600, Monday to Friday. Most of my time is spent out of doors except when I have data entry to do or the weather is too bad. This week for instance I had to check the penguin colonies near the base for oiled birds which took up Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday was skivvy day, where we divide up into teams and clean the base; one team gets the bathrooms, another the kitchen and the other the lounge, bar and passages. We rotate duty each week and I'm sure you can guess skivvy is NOT everyone's favourite part of the week. Wednesday after skivvy was up Tafelkop for nest checks, Thursday, up Tafelkop again for the Moorhen call counts (and in the vain hope of logging the last outstanding albatross nest partner) and Friday was out to the penguins at Tumbledown to collect feathers for a population genetic study. 


Another routine but irregular part of live here on the Base is getting up at 0300 (usually) when the fire alarm goes off. It has always been a false alarm so far. We believe that the "miggies" fly into the smoke detectors and trigger them. This week was different as I woke at 2am on Wednesday morning to the sound of an alarm, which was not the fire alarm but sounded like a car alarm. Thinking that I must be dreaming I tried to go back to sleep but soon realised that I was not dreaming. So I found so clothes and staggered down the passage to John's room. He told me that the alarm was down at the generators. So after finding a torch I went down to the generator shack. I found Mornay there, staring forlornly at a lake of oil surrounding one of the diesel generators. An oil hose had failed and twenty liters of high pressure oil had sprayed out, covering everything. There was nothing more to be done that night and so we left. The next morning we discovered that we have no spare hoses for our make generators (we have spares for another make, go figure...) and we will have to wait until a spare can be brought to us on the next ship. Hopefully, the remaining generator will hold out until then.

The Glen, site of the old Base, from South Peak. The valley is called Sophora Glen because of the stand of Sophora  trees that grow there. The origin of the trees is a mystery as they only grow there and nowhere else on Gough or any of the neighbouring islands.

Michelle and Robyn came up Tafelkop with me on Thursday and we climbed South Peak. It was the most stunning day, except for the howling wind, the peak was clear of cloud and we were able to get a beautiful panoramic view of the island. It was the first time I have had a chance to do any recreational hiking on the island and it was simply wonderful, probably the best day I have had here to date.

Michelle on top of South Peak

Well, that is it for another week, just want to thank all of those of you who have taken the time to mail me or call me with your news (on that note, congrats to Stefan and Jorina who have now been married a week and a day), I really appreciate it and it is wonderful to have contact with the wider world.