Mad Birds and Englishwomen - 11 April to 17 April

...go out in the midday sun...

South West Island from Cavern Head. Before all of you rock climbers get excited, the rock here is worse than the 'Berg. Still impressive though.

At least that is how we roll on Gough Island. Actually it is not just the midday sun and not just the Englishwomen, Prince hardly fits that definition and they have to do weather observations every three hours whatever the weather. I'm really glad I don't have their job, even though the four days off, two days on working schedule has some appeal, the getting up at 03:00 does not.

South Point from Cavern Head. I'll have to go there soon to collect penguin feathers

This has been a rather lonely week for me, I've been visiting parts of the island where I've never been before and seeing beautiful sights and I have no one to experience them with me. So much of the enjoyment of these experiences comes from sharing them with someone else. I don't mean to insult you, dear Faithful Reader, I do value your reading of this blog and your comments greatly but it is not the same as having someone with you. Michelle would have come along but she has been catching up on her missed shifts and recovering from her illness. It seems silly to be here, doing this on my own, when I know of so many people who would have jumped at the chance to come and work here in Ross' place had they been given the chance. It was too much admin to replace him, so they took the easy way out, I guess.

Juvenile Antarctic Tern

Anyway, I have now been to Richmond Hill (the hill in every one of the sunset photos I have posted), Cavern Head and the Serengeti (the plain to the north of the base on the far side of Hill 960) to count the Sooty Albatross fledglings. I also revisited Admirals, which was easier than last time because I didn't have to teach anyone how to jumar out this time. Mere words cannot express what a special place (on this island of special places) Admirals is. There is something undefinable about it. It would be perfect if it wasn't covered in ferocious seals.

The Admiral sea stack

Anyway, my bed is calling me. I miss all of you a lot and I cannot wait to come home although I will miss the island. Under five months now :-)

The bottom of the rope

The Admiral, the Midshipman and the penguins...

The Glen and Elephants of the Sea - 4 April to 10 April

This has been a great week here on Gough...

Looking south from roughly due east of the Glen, the Admirals sea stacks are visible at the far left.

Firstly, I have made my final visit to Seal Beach (hopefully I won't have to go back in takeover). I went there to deploy GeoLocators on the penguins before they depart after the moult. I am really glad to not have to go back and brave the seals by myself again. It is quite scary sitting concentrating on something, like how to get a furious penguin into a capture bag, and realize that a seal has come within a meter or two without you noticing. Then the seal sees you, barks loudly and you nearly die of a heart attack. Not fun at all!

The coast to the north of the Glen.

Next I found out that the last big storm we had managed to remove a 200kg pump from Snoekgat. It was about ten meters above sea level and at least thirty back from the sea. The pump was used as part of the Sagina control, it was used to remove top soil and thereby remove the seed bank in the soil. So that part of the work plan gets scrapped too...

Local inhabitants greeted us as we came ashore. The male Elephant Seal was about 6m long.

Then we got news that the Edinburgh had been released from its charter assisting with the cleanup of the oiled birds on Inaccessible and Nightingale islands and would be arriving on Friday, bringing with it parcels for the team and the Tristan Chief Islander and his Assistant, who were coming to pay us a visit during their fishery inspections. This was wonderful news because you cannot believe how nice it is to see new faces and hear different voices in the Base! They only stayed for a day but they were able to organize with the Edinburgh for them to give Michelle, Robyn and I a lift to the Glen. The Glen is the site of the old Meteorological Station on Gough from the '50s until the '60s when it was moved to its current location. It is also where the sealers used to stay, where the passing ships collected water and has a large number of engraved rocks to commemorate their visits that date back as far as the 1700s. There is also a large penguin colony there that I needed to visit to check that there are no oiled penguins and to collect feathers from some of the birds as part of a population genetic study.

Male and female Elephant Seal. The male appeared to be moulting.

So, bright and early on Saturday, we left the island on the crane and got into one of the power boats from the Edinburgh. They took us around to the Glen, passing between the sea stacks at Admirals. The island is particularly beautiful from the sea, with towering cliffs and tumbling waterfalls. It is very reminiscent of the opening scenes of the Jurassic Park films with overgrown cliffs disappearing into the mist. The powerboats are fibreglass and so they could not get too close to the pebble beach at the Glen for fear of holing them. So we had to bail over the side and swim ashore, no easy task when fully clothed and with a heavy pack. At least the sea was calm and warm.

Michelle was trying to give picture some scale and it wasn't really working because she wouldn't go within 5m of it.

We staggered ashore and were greeted by the sight of a pair of Elephant Seals. Words cannot convey how massive they are and pictures do not do them justice at all. It is simply astonishing! Robyn's eyes nearly dropped out of her head when she saw the male. His head is so massive that my entire head would fit inside his mouth if I would put it there (Not a chance of that, their breath is bad enough to kill from five meters away). They are surprising quick for something so large, when they move they look like massive wobbly caterpillars.

A concrete plaque commemorating a team from the '50s.

My dad had asked me to visit Sophora Glen, which is just next to the Glen, to take pictures of the Sophora trees that grow there. The copse there is the only one on the entire Tristan group of islands and their native range is limited to South America. How they came to Gough and why they have not spread beyond the one stand is a mystery. Sadly, while getting on to the top of the ridge separating the Glen from Sophora was relatively easy, the descent into Sophora looked beyond ridiculous and I abandoned my plans.

The sealers cave, ironically now filled with seals and temporarily, us.

The plan had been to walk back from the Glen to the Base via South Peak but Michelle came down with a stomach bug that evening and she would not have been able to manage the difficult and strenuous walk. So the Edinburgh kindly delayed their planned departure on Sunday morning and sent a zodiac to collect us and return us to the Base. Michelle is recovering well and hopefully should be right as rain soon. It seems she picked up the bug from one of the Tristaners as several people on Tristan have also been sick.

Archway Rock and the Edinburgh. Sophora Glen is on the other side of the arch.

It was an interesting and truly special experience again. This island keeps on delivering magical times and I am really going to miss it when I have to leave.

The Edinburgh retrieving its power boat.

Edinburgh Peak 3 - 1 Gough 56, 28 March to 3 April

Well, we did it! On April 01 2011, at 1604 GMT Michelle, Robyn and I stood on the highest point of Gough Island, Edinburgh Peak. When we saw the weather forecast on Wednesday, predicting good weather for at least a week, we knew we had to try again, so despite Michelle having just completed her two day shift as Met Officer and Robyn starting hers, we persuaded Prince to stand in for them, I grabbed my bird ringing kit and counter and early Thursday morning we set off for Gonydale. We arrived there, propelled by Michelle's singing of "If I was a fit (rich) man" and with several hours remaining before supper we began to do nest checks and ring adult Tristans.

A Yellow Nosed Albatross "barking"

John Cooper, a zoologist with many years experience on Gough claims it is possible to ring a Tristan on your own but I really cannot believe it. They are incredibly strong and have really sharp beaks (I have the scars to prove it!) and I am really worried that if I try to ring one by myself I will end up hurting the bird or it will panic and hurt its chick. So I was really glad to have them both along to help.

A Tristan with its chick

Most of the eggs have now hatched and few of the remaining ones will successfully hatch. Words cannot convey how sad it is to see the nests fail one by one. The Tristans are a critically endangered species and it breaks my heart to see nests built in stream beds, eggs that have been trampled by a careless adult or, worst of all, where the chick has been killed by the introduced mice. When people tell you that Gough has a mouse problem, it does not convey the sheer scale of the mess that humans have caused. To give you an idea, most nights in Gonydale are not the peaceful, still nights that you would expect. The mice are everywhere you look. They climb the walls of the tents and run along the guy-ropes, looking for a way in. They even sometimes gnaw holes through the nylon to get inside. Any food left outside is quickly consumed. It is truly terrible. There are plans underway to attempt to eradicate the mice but given the nature of the islands terrain and the sheer scale of the problem, it will be a Herculean task.

Gough Buntings

We had been told by Llewellyn and Martin, two members of the 2009 - 2010 team that the best way from Gonydale to Edinburgh Peak was to go straight up South Rowett from Gonydale and then walk across the ridge to North Rowett via Central Rowett and then descend Windy Ridge to Waterfall Camp (there is a map showing the route here). This route allows you to bypass Albatross Plain, which is a huge mire and impossible to cross in anything other than a hovercraft, and takes you along the spine of the island with spectacular views over to the Eastern and Western sides of the island. So when Friday dawned bright, clear and still we set off. Two hours later, with considerable amounts of energy expended we reached the top of South Rowett and got our first view of the Northern end of the island. We were incredibly lucky and the weather was perfect, you could not have wished for better. Not a breath of wind and no cloud, weather conditions that are not supposed to exist here, ever.

The Western side of the island, looking towards Edinburgh Peak from South Rowett

The Eastern side of the island, Albatross Plain in the foreground, looking towards Edinburgh Peak from South Rowett

After stopping briefly to recover and do a count of incubating Tristans (Ross and I were supposed to count these in February but he left before it could be done and the weather has prevented it from happening until now) we pushed on over the Rowetts and onto Windy Ridge. It has a fearsome reputation, the lee side is a massive drop off towards the sea and as it is the lowest point on the island's central ridge, the wind howls over it. Martin had said that once the wind was so strong he had to lie down and crawl and even then it still lifted him up! We were lucky and it was more like "Slight Breeze" Ridge.

Michelle and Robyn on Windy Ridge with North Rowett in the background

Tarn Moss mire from Windy Ridge

Waterfall Camp is aptly named...

We arrived at Waterfall Camp and after a leisurely lunch we realised that we still had time to climb the peak before dark. After some deliberation Robyn convinced us to go and so we started up the final stretch. As we climbed, the cloud started to form and when we reached the top it was almost a whiteout. Fortunately the cloud came and went and as we waited we were able to see the whole island by parts. Boy oh boy, was it ever worth it! Simply incredible! It was such an amazing sight, we could see the Atlantic all around us and it was apparent that our island is very, very small and lonely. At just over 900m Edinburgh Peak is not much by even our modest South African standards but very few people have ever had the privilege of standing on top.

Panorama from Edinburgh Peak

The next morning we were so happy to that we had climbed it because the mist was so thick that we could hardly see ten meters. In light of the rather poor conditions we scrapped our plans to explore the Tarn Moss area and headed back towards Gonydale via a different route, one that follows the Baseline Ridge (so called because it was used as the trigonometric baseline during the survey of the island in the 1960s) and skirts around the Western edge of Albatross Plain.

Sunlight on the sea

It was quite eerie walking along in the mist with strange, eroded lava pinnacles appearing suddenly from the mist. After a quick detour to rescue a sleeping bag from going mouldy in the tote bin at the Giant Petrel colony, we made it back to Gonydale with plenty of time to do more nest checks (again with the assistance of the long suffering Robyn and Michelle). As always working with the Tristans was a special experience and Michelle was even groomed by an amorous albatross! Come the evening and we headed up to Coopers Col in the hope of seeing the sunset but our luck had finally turned and the clouds came in, denying us a chance to see it.

Michelle and Robyn crossing the bottom of Albatross Plain

So on Sunday morning it was three tired, damp and very smelly hikers who returned to Base to sample the joys of hot food, drinks, comfy chairs and soft beds. What a wonderful experience it was, the best yet!

A rock pool, filled with some of the nicest tasting water anywhere

The albatross on the left was the one that preened Michelle

Sunset from Coopers Col

I am going to go and get into my bed for a well deserved sleep now so good night to you all.

Some of the island's vegetation may be small but is still stunning

Have a wonderful week.

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. 

New nephew, shipwrecks and winter arrives - 14 March to 20 March

So first the big news, my sister has had a son. His name is Cameron Viet, he weighed 2.58 kgs at birth and was 49 cm long. He was born on Saturday last week, so this really should have been in the last post but I did not have any photo's to post so I waited until I did...

So after the momentous news the rest of the week has been fairly quiet with nothing really happening beyond the watch officer of a 250 m long merchant vessel, the M.S. Olivia, falling asleep and running aground on Nightingale Island near Tristan da Cunha. She is out of Brazil and bound for South Africa with a cargo of soya beans. She has broken up and is leaking fuel oil into the sea which will have terrible consequences for the sea- and bird life. You can see photos and read updates on the situation here: www.tristandc.com/newsmsoliva.php
What a complete and utter mess. I guess that officer will be looking for a new career, somewhere far, far away from ships and shipping. Four islands in 1000000 square kilometers and he hit one of them. I have been asked by my boss at the RSPB to check for oiled birds regularly, although we hope that the birds don't travel that far to feed and that the prevailing winds and currents will push the oil North and away from Gough.

Dawn and the Skua dawn patrol

I paid my many-ith visit to Gonydale yesterday, in order to do more nest checks and log the adult birds. I was up before dawn and was rewarded by the most stunning sunrise. When it is not raining here, the weather really rewards you for effort. Winter has definitely arrived because the wind is blowing straight from the Antarctic to us and daytime temperatures are in the region of 8 degrees now.
I was also lucky enough to get to watch a Tristan chick hatch, unfortunately I don't have any pictures because my camera was deep in my bag and I did not want to disturb the adult by getting it out, so you will have to make do with the photo below of another one starting to crack its egg. The whole process took about 20 minutes from start to finish and it is truly something special to behold. The chick is folded up inside the egg like a pretzel and is seemingly boneless because there is no way it could fit into the egg otherwise. Simply awesome!

Dad watching expectantly

The news from the island seems really small and insignificant in the light of the terrible and shocking events unfolding in Japan, first the earthquake and then the nuclear accident, what an awful series of events. We have all been following the events closely and have been overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the disaster. I don't know what to say but my heart goes out to all of them.

Skua waiting for returning night birds

Failures, a party and new arrivals - March 6 to March13

So our attempt to climb Edinburgh Peak ended in dismal failure. We arrived at Gonydale on Sunday evening and looked up into a clearing sky, covered in bright stars. We went to bed full of hope for the next morning only to awake to driving mist and rain. The next part of the hike to the next campsite at the base of the peak, Waterfall Camp, requires a traverse of a high, exposed ridge and we decided that the peak would still be there another day and beat a retreat to base. The worst part was waking up to a stunning day on Tuesday, windless and hot, a rare perfect day on Gough and knowing that it would have been a perfect summit day. Mornay and Robyn, neither of whom have hiked at all before Gough, took a lot of strain, particularly on the long (for Gough that is) descent to Base from Gonydale. So when Michelle and I decided to try again yesterday, neither of them was keen to join us. The second attempt ended much as the first with us again waking to worse weather than the day before. We were momentarily tempted to try push through by a gap in the clouds but it quickly closed and we trudged back to base. Current score: Edinburgh Peak 2, Gough 56 team 0.

At least the trips to Gonydale have given me a chance to get some nest checks and log lots of Tristan Albatross partners. It is also really nice to get out of Base, even if it is only for a couple of days. i think I would go crazy if I spent all day, every day there.

Tristan chick, deliberately not posing

The first Tristan chicks have started to hatch, they are the cutest, tiny little bundles of feathers sheltering under their parents down. Hopefully I will be able to log all the parents before they leave the chicks on their own, only returning to feed them intermittently.

This week was also Prince's birthday and a big party was held to celebrate. The theme was Hero/Villain and which one you were was chosen by random draw from a hat. It was a great evening with loads of pool, dancing, surfing and drinking; too much drinking. Way, way too much drinking. What happens on the island stays on the island so all I can say is that the hangover was a champion...

From left: Elastagirl (Michelle), Zorro (Leonie), Catwoman (Robyn), Jason (Me) and Mr Big (Prince)

A return to Seal Beach, blergh! - Monday 28 February to Saturday 5 March

This week has been a relatively quiet week of good weather, with no storms like last week and no more anniversaries. I have had to return to the hated Seal Beach, which is still over populated with large, aggressive, toothy and smelly seals. I have been weighing and measuring adult penguins prior to the moult which will happen later this month. Man, have the little buggers managed to put on weight! The largest of them are over five kilograms, which is massive for a forty centimeter high bird. Seal Beach is just as smelly and unpleasant as usual so I am glad to report that I managed to conclude the weighing and measuring this week, meaning that I will only have to make periodic visits this month to check for birds with loggers that need to be recovered and downloaded before being put out again at the beginning of April.

Other than the visit to Seal Beach, it has been a pleasant week, with a my first visit to Admirals, the bay just to the north east of the base. You have to abseil to access it and have to jumar up the rope to get out and thankfully Michelle was kind enough to volunteer to come with me, otherwise I would not have been allowed to go as we are not allowed to do that sort of thing on our own. Admirals (despite the presence of seals and penguins) is really, really spectacular. It is a small semi-circular bay surrounded by high cliffs and filled with sea stacks. It reminds me of Ha Long Bay in Vietnam, where the movie "The Beach" was filmed but less tropical, sandy and warm of course. There is a wonderful, sheltered spot under a Phylica tree at the top of the cliffs from where you can watch the whole bay, it is a fantastic place to come and sit and unwind.

Admirals

This is being posted today, Saturday, rather than tomorrow because Michelle, Robyn, Mornay and I are leaving early tomorrow for Edinburgh Peak, via Tafelkoppie and Gonydale. Ostensibly the trip is so that I can complete part of the "round-island count" of nesting albatrosses and check nests at Tafelkoppie and Gonydale but really it is so that we can say we have been to the highest point on the island. Just don't tell my boss :-)

A rainbow this morning, hopefully a sign that the weather will be great for our trip