Game Safaris in Botswana (Chobe NP) and Zimbabwe (Hwange and Motopos NPs) and Happy Anniversary

7/7/19

We had an early start and crossed the border into Botswana. We did a bit of shopping in Kasane, the closest down to our campsite. The campsite is really cool being right next to a watering hole, where you can hang out at a bar "hide" to watch the animals come to drink. The group did a sunset boat ride, but Elisha and I arranged an afternoon game drive instead, since we had done a lot of boat rides (where you mainly seem hippos, crocs, and elephants), and wanted to try or luck at a game drive where you can sometimes see carnivores like cats.

On the game drive in Chobe National Park, we some some big male Kudu, which was awesome as they are beautiful animals with their spiraling horns. The most amazing thing; however, was how many elephants there were. Hundreds! There were so many of them coning down to the water, and also just everywhere that we drove. Little cute babies abounded. We got really close to many and were even mock charged to within 1 feet. The mock charge was scary enough in our open-sided vehicle that Elisha and a German guy with us, quickly jumped to the other side of the vehicle.

The town of Kasane, the gateway to Chobe, is a lot like Estes Park, in that there are baboons, warthogs, impala, and elephants wandering around town. At one truck stop, there was an elephant sniffing around the parked trucks.

When Elisha and I got back to the campsite, we went down into the hide and a family of elephants came to the water hole to drink. The hide is this bunker that is underground and that is about 15 feet from the waterhole. It's so magical to be so close and at ground level looking up and observing the elephants. It's a very unique angle to be at the level of their feet and look up at the elephants. After a dinner of some beef roast, Elisha and I went back to the bunker and watched for several more hours. Family after family came in as they rotated through the waterhole. Sometimes there was a slight Kerfuffle when they came to the waterhole and asserted dominance, which would often lead to lound trumpeting. The elephants also made cool grumbling sounds. The little babies are super cute to watch drink. Some don't know how to use their trunks to drink, so they kneel down like a cat. Just magical to sit there with the elephants through the night.

7/8/19
Today was crossed back into Zimbabwe and drove to Hwange National Park. We first visited the Painted Dog (African Wild Dog, which I had previously studied at Mpala) rehab and conservation centre where we learned about painted dogs and also saw 2 of the dogs that were in captivity due to broken legs from poacher snares. We bought a pair of "love" giraffes made from snares that had been removed in the national park after poachers had set them up. Wild Dogs caught in snares meant for game animals is a major cause of their decline. We bought the giraffes because they benefit wild dog conservation and for our 2 year anniversary gift to ourselves.

In the afternoon we met the guide we'd have for the next few days, Ian. Ian is a white Zimbabwean and an impressive naturalist and great story teller. He is a very passionate guy. So our game drives were interesting. It was a lot of interesting talk about animals and plants and some very interesting facts. Animals and plants are just so fascinating and amazing. We learned a lot about medicinal plants as well. On the game drive we saw kudu, hippos, crocs, waterbuck, steenbok, and even 4 lionesses.

We had a chicken curry dinner, and then we went for a a night drive. It's the winter here, and Hwange is a dry area, so it's cold at night, so we bundled up for the night drive. It was a cool (literally and figuratively) game drive. We saw lots of springhares ("African Kangaroos") that jump around lke kangaroos, cute bushbabies (galago) that jump so quick through the trees. We also saw an African Wildcat! AND we saw a young female leopard walking along the road. Beautiful! We warmed up by the fire upon our return and then went to bed.

7/9/19

In the early morning we had another game drive in Hwange NP. We saw the same cast of animals as usual, including a few female lions sauntering down the road. We also saw some jackals and a new subspecies of Zebra we hadn't seen before. After the game drive, we had a delicious brunch of bacon, eggs, and pancakes.

We then drove to the city of Bulawayo where we camped on the grounds of a cool old colonial Zimbabwean house that had a nice garden and pool. For dinner we had spaghetti bolognese.

7/10/19
Happy 2nd Anniversary to Elisha and me!
We actually got to sleep in a bit, and I did some laundry. We then left with Ian for a full day excursion into Motopos National Park. We started the day with a very passionate speech by Ian about the terrible plight of the rhino. In his speech he talked about why he believes the rhino horn trade should be legalized (that they should be farmed as well as cut the horns off of the wild rhinos in national parks, all for sale, legal and managed sale). Since a rhino horn is made of keratin (basically a giant fingernail) it can be cut without hurting the rhino, and it will grow back. However, there is much debate in the conservation community about legalizing the rhino horn trade.

Next, we went on foot to track some wild rhinos. We found 4 of them lying in the shade of a tree. We could get really close, within 20-25 feet of them. On the way back to the truck, we witnessed 2 giant pythons mating.

We drove through the park and had a picnic lunch up on a hill with a nice view. The park is full of hills with all these giant boulders everywhere on the hills. The landscape is otherwise covered in tree and scrubland. Next, we drove a touch out of the park to a small village and hiked up through the boulders to a cave that was full of paintings from bushmen. The bushmen have been around the area for 200,000 years and the paintings here were ?????? years old. Ian told us all about the bushmen people. They have mostly vanished, but there are 2500 left.

We heard lots of interesting stories and facts, but here are a few: The bushmen might be the most moral people around. They share absolutely everything and believe no one owns anything. They have no word in their language for lie or deceit. They are hunter-gatherers and always consume every piece of the animal they kill. They have these special fat storage areas on their hips (like a camel's hump) used for storage of fat for the hard times. The rest of them will be quite skinny, but they store all the fat on those hips. When a man wants to choose a wife, he shoots her in the bum with a dull arrow (it just bounces off of her) while she sits around the fire. If she wants him, she clutches the arrow and runs off into the bush. He follows and, thus, they are married. If she doesn't like him, she snaps the arrow in half, and he leaves broken hearted. This is all very cupid like.

We then drove to a hill and walked up to watch the sunset from a top the boulders. We watched little elephant shrews sipping water, and Ian told us the story of the famous Cecil Rhodes--his grave site was up there on the mountain top where we were. His grave area is known as world view.

We brought champagne up to celebrate our anniversary, so we climbed some rocks and watched the sunset with the bubbly. It was very beautiful! We also took some cool sunset silhouette photos. Strangely, when we were on the rocks, some tourist woman told Jodi, Norbert, and me that she wished we'd fall and hurt ourselves. So strange! I scampered down and confronted her about it, to ask why she would say such a cruel thing. She just sat there drinking her coke and ignoring me.

We then had a fairly long and cold drive in our open vehicle back to camp. I had left my pack towel at our previous came in Hwange, and we had contacted a guide that was coming today, so he brought my towel to me, which was awesome!

7/11/19
We got up really early to drive to Gweta in Botswana. We crossed the border into Botswana and stopped in Francistown to shop. Elisha and I had Indian food for lunch, and we also got some ice cream. We're staying at a nice campsite/lodge in Gweta.

Some other interesting Zimbabwe info: They don't put prices in supermarkets and other stores because the currency fluctuates too much. Their coal power plants have been shut down for one reason or another and Zimbabwe is too in debt to South Africa and Botswana to buy power from them, so most of the country only has power for a few hours a day. We had chili con carne for dinner and sat around the fire at night. Some local dancers came and danced with us.

Border Crossing at the 4th of July & the Fireworks of Victoria Falls

7/4/19
Happy 4th of July!!
I decorated the bus with red and blue balloons and drew fireworks on our truck whiteboard. We were excited to celebrate Independence Day with so may (tyrannical) British passengers on our tour. Elisha and I dressed up for the day. I wore a blue shirt, red hat, and red bowtie with a silver tinsel boa. Elisha had a blue shirt, blue hat, red bandana, and silver tinsel boa.

We got up early and visited the Zambian side of Victoria Falls (One of the 7 Wonders of the World) for sunrise. It was absolutely stunning! We got to watch the sun rise and then the rainbows start to form as the light intersected with the mist. There were many nice viewpoints, including the knife bridge spanning a little canyon. We were, of course, in our full 4th of July outfits. Since we arrived to the falls so early, we were the only ones there, which made it special. After the normal viewpoints, we went off the standard route with a guide. We hopped across little streams to eventually stand right over the falls and look at it falling below our feet. It was very exhilarating!

From the falls, we walked to the border crossing on the Zambian side to stamp out of Zambia. We then got in the truck and dover over the bridge spanning the Zambezi gorge. At the Zimbabwe border I asked for a multiple entry visa since we would be leaving and coming back. But I was supposed to asked for a double entry (but I was not told this by our dragoman crew) because the visa I was given was for unlimited entry between Zambia and Zimbabwe, not between Zimbabwe and other border countries. I tried to argue with immigration, but no luck.

At the town of Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, we set up camp and then walked around town and relaxed. The group went out to eat at a place that was $20/meal, but Elisha and I went to pizza that was a large for $7. We then went for drinks at a nice bar across from our campsite.

The financial system in Zimbabwe is really crazy right now. As you might know, they had crazy inflation a few years ago. Thus, they have currency notes from a few years back that are actually huge (ex. 500 billion, 1 trillion, and 20 trillion dollars), and even with those they would require a sack full of them to buy even a loaf of bread. They then switched to USD, but 2 weeks ago, the government officially gave up USD. They still don't have a currency! Currently, they are using paper notes that are bonds. On the note is says the government will pay you the equivalent of the bond whenever the currency comes out. Of course the currency is in wild fluctuation. So right now government agencies (e.g. post office) and other larger chains (e.g. grocery stores and gas stations) can only use bond, but luckily everywhere else still takes USD. But because, for example, gas is bought abroad with USD, but payment can only be paid in bond, which is too risky, petrol stations have closed down. When we talked to people, they said that the only way to fuel your car is to pay $35 USD to get into Botswana with your car and fuel up, and then $10 USD to come back to Zimbabwe just to fill up your car. You're not allowed to bring jerry cans of gas back either, but some people do hide some in their cars. Right now the official rates is 1 USD = 10 bond, but only locals can get bond for dollars from the banks, so if we want bond, we have to exchange it with a local on the black market, which is 5 or 6 bond for 1 USD.

In the afternoon we walked back to the border bridge to watch Danny bungee jump. We also ordered a taster paddle of microbrews at the local craft brewery.

7/5/19
Slept past sunrise for the first time in ages. We walked down to Victoria Falls (the Zimbabwe side). This side is maybe more dramatic and impressive (but also more crowded). Many of the viewpoints had mist falling on us, and others were downright downpours. In the local language the falls are known as Mosi-oa-Tunya (The smoke that thunders) because from a distance you can see the mist rising up like smoke. The falls are 351 feet tall and 5,698ft (over a mile) long. At full flood, water is falling along the entire length. We were visiting at the very start of the dry season, so there should have been quite a lot of water; however, it was a bad wet season (not much rain), so the river was flowing at dry season levels. Nevertheless, it is truly impressive! At the far end of the viewpoints was the "danger area" where there were no rails, so you could stand right on the edge and look down to the bottom of the gorge and the raging river below. There were also some views where you could see rainbows created by the mist.

After visiting the falls, Elisha and I had lunch at a very cheap local place. We then went to a local market outside of the tourist town. The tourist section of Victoria Falls town is so strange because it doesn't feel like Africa. It feels like a mix between Disney World and Moab. In the afternoon we did laundry. We then bussed to a fancy safari lodge that a couple people on are trip upgraded to and enjoyed drinks while watching the sunset. The rest of the group ate there, but we back to Victoria Falls town and went out to a tasty, but much cheaper place.

7/6/19

Today we rafted down the mighty Zambezi! It was a very fun, scary, and exhilarating experience! There were 19 named rapids (and other non-named rapids) with names such as "stairway to heaven," "devil's toilet bowl," "gnashing jaws," "the muncher," "overland truck eater," "washing machine," and "oblivion." We went through 3 class V rapids with most being class IV. The trip began with a very steep hike down the gorge that included some ladders. We were then at the base of Victoria Falls, which is where the rafting began. The trip was 28kms of a lot of adrenalin. At the finish we had a steep hike up to the rim again where we had a bbq and cold beers.

Back at Vic Falls town, we had some ice cream and then relaxed at our campsite. There is a marathon happening on Sunday, so there was a concert in the park adjacent to our campsite that had some good music. They were giving out schwag and prizes, which was funny because they were giving out things like cows, goats, and generators.

For dinner we had a brae (Southern Africa BBQ), which included worms, kudu stew, and warthog, impala, and crocodile steaks. Very delicious!

We picked up 10 new people joining the remaining 7 people from our last trip: Lewis, Luti, Lucy, Norbert, Jodi, Elisha, and me. We also got a new driver, Adam (UK) who is replacing José. The new people are Jake, Dan, Harry (UK), Michelle (Canada), Micky and Georgi (UK), Noah and Natasha (California), and Javier and Annie (Argentina).

The last group was being called the "Love Truck" because there were a few hook-ups on it. The guide Thomas hooked up with Amber in a fling. Lewis and Lucinda got together in something that seems more serious (Lewis is changing his around the world trip to visit Lucinda on her next journey in South America). And Norbert and Jodi have become a couple that seems pretty serious. Upon the end of the trip, Norbert had plans to go stay with Jodi for 6 months in Australia: "to work on my English" is what he said. haha.

Canoeing down the Mighty Zambezi, dodging hippos and crocs

6/30/19

Today we drove to the banks of the might Zambezi River, which is the 4th longest river in Africa (behind the Nile, Congo, and Niger). On the way we stopped at the Zambian Capitol of Lusaka to shop and eat lunch (Schwarma and Pizza). We then drove to the Zambezi River, near to the town of Chirundu. We went over a pretty steep pass, and there were lots of trucks tipped over, and even up-side-down in ditches. Several places in Malawi and Zambia we have seen this. The campsite was nice, along the banks of the river and echoed with the sounds of grunting hippos. At night, 3 elephants were browsing by the tents. For dinner Denford cooked up steak (T-bones) and bratwurst.

7/1/19
Today we started our 2 day canoe trip down the Zambezi River. We loaded all the canoes up with food, cookware, tents, and gear and took off. The river is very wide and gentle. The main dangers are hippos if you get too close (but mostly they just watch us with curiosity as we float by) and crocs if you dangle limbs in the water (but mostly they bask in the sun on the banks of the river).

In the heat of the day we paddled ashore and relaxed in the shade on the sand. On the afternoon paddled, we encountered some elephants eating close to shore. We got out of the canoes, and we stood about 15 feet from them, which was a really cool experience. We also saw an elephant cross the river with only its trunk above the water. We camped on a sandy area and had a beef/hamburger stew thing with rice. As the sun set over the river, we swam in the river. It was a gorgeous sunset! Hippos, hyenas, and lions could be heard from the camp all night.

All in all, today was a 13 km paddle.

7/2/19

We had a morning paddle among crocs and hippos to our lunch spot on a sandy island where we relaxed in the shade beside the water. In the afternoon, we paddled past more hippos, crocs, and some elephants as well. We also passed by a recently dead baby hippo. We camped on a beachy area and swam again at sunset. We had a meaty sauce on rice for dinner.

7/3/19

To get back to the truck, we took a before sunrise boat ride (fast barge) back to our starting point on the Zambezi. It was beautiful watching the sunrise from the boat. We then had a long drive to Livingstone.

At the camp in Livingstone there were tongs of mosquitoes! So we had a lot of fun zapping them with our electric zapper. The camp was really nice. It had a great bar overlooking the Zambezi, but unfortunately it was dark, so we really couldn't see. We had tasty (and cheap) White Russians at the bar while sitting looking out over the dark Zambezi River.

A busy week in Enviro

11/13/19

It's been a busy week for environmental so far. We drove a snow cat (pisten bully) out for an hour and a half on the sea ice to check out the seal population dynamics researchers. They're from Montana State Univ and are friends of mine, so it's fun to visit them to check on their camp. Also its not bad getting to walk up close to the seal pups. But mostly I LOVE driving the snow cats. Laura and Marci don't, so I get to be the driver whenever we go out on the sea ice.

Today we visited the "Penguin Ranch" sea ice location where the group is studying emperor penguin dive physiology, so they have 5 penguins corralled inside a pen with a hole to the sea ice so that they can monitor various aspects of penguin physiology. Emperor penguins are so beautiful and interesting to watch. Today we also helped with a big 50 gallon spill of glycol that poured out of the power plant.

11/14/19
Today was the MCI (Mass Casualty Incident) drill. The simulation was a plane crash at the airfield. Normally patients would be transported from the airfield to the hospital via helicopter, but the weather was terrible, so they called the SAR team out to get get patients and do patient care in our Hagglunds (snow cats). At the last minute when we arrived, the weather cleared enough to send helicopters, so we ended up having to not transport patients, but it was fun to cruise at top speed through the snow in our Hagglunds. A drive to the airfield by snowcat from town is about 25ish minutes. In a helicopter it's about 5 minutes.

11/16/19
Yesterday, Marci and I flew out to Lake Bonney in the Dry Valleys to do a field camp review. The camp hasn't been occupied for about a week, so we were the only ones there in the beautiful and quiet camp at the foot of mountains with glaciers streaming all around and along the shores of a frozen lake. We always test the water at each camp we go to, but not this one b/c all the water in the Jamesway tent was frozen

Yesterday there was a major failure at the power plant that caused frequent power outages. It's caused a mess around town and all non-essential electronics have been requested to be turned off. They shut down the stations TV and movies so that no one could watch TV. They also closed all the bars and Hut 10. Also they unplugged all the washers and dryers. With the power outages the fire detection and suppression computer failed, and so we are having to do hourly checks of buildings for fire safety. This means the poor RAs had to be up every hour last night for all the dorms. Power conservation is key, especially considering we get our water via reverse osmosis (RO) by taking the salt out of the sea water, so it's important to have the power

During the power outages, the RO system was not able to function, so we got pretty low on water. Thus the community has been put on major water restrictions. We are no longer using dishes at the galley b/c of the water they require to clean, so we're using paper plates, paper bowls, and paper cups.

Tonight was a fun-filled and busy night for us. After our workout and dinner, we went to the BFC. BFC stands for Berg Field Center (though affectionately known as building full of chicks since mostly women seem to work there). Berg was a young scientist here that died in a a helicopter crash here 50 years ago. So the BFC held a party in his remembrance. The BFC is one of the coolest work centers and they did a really good job of decorating the place up. They had hors d'oeuvres of cheese, crackers, and smoked scallops, and were also serving free wine and beer. Bija and Robyn, the heads of the BFC gave a history of the Berg, we did a toast, people who had wintered at the BFC told ghost stories of how Berg haunts it, and then there was live music.

After the live music and before the dance party at the BFC started, Elisha and I headed instead to the MEC for the Slow Song Saturday dance. This is one of my very favorite parties at McM. It's a small group, and they play mostly 80's power ballads. Everyone sings out loud, and there are fake microphones that they pass around to sing into if you wish. During certain, powerful or famous songs, everyone links arms in a circle and sways. I love it!

Sunday was freezing weather (-4F ambient with -35F windchill), so we mostly stayed in and watched football and movies.


11/18
The station ran out of paper plates, so at breakfast, we only had bowls. Also there were no paper mugs suitable for hot beverages. I have put in a few photos of the funny signs at the galley today


A note from the manager about water restrictions

Community,

Our power production has stabilized, but during the power outages our water production ceased and our current inventories require us to adopt Water Stage Orange restrictions (FMC-SOP-1023). We are currently producing potable water, and at current production and consumption rates we expect to be able to lift water restrictions in approximately 48 hours.

Water Stage Orange restrictions:

·         No laundry. If there is an active health or hygiene risk, contact the Lodging team.

·         Two two-minute showers per week for all McMurdo residents.

·         Dining Facility meals are served on paper plates.

·         Limit industrial use of fresh water.

·         No mopping of floors apart from Medical and Dining Facility

***Please note there are no restrictions on water consumption or hand washing—continue to take care of your health and the community’s health.

Additionally:

·         Report any observed or suspected water leaks or running toilets to Dispatch at x42555.

·         Fire watches remain in effect for occupied buildings. We are actively troubleshooting the monitoring system.

·         All recreational facilities are open and accessible.

·         Off-station recreational travel is permitted.

·         Appliances and devices can be plugged in and used. As always, keep conservation in mind.

Thank you for your patience and understanding,

Pedro

A note from the manager to leads:

In a few minutes a message will go out to the entire community addressing our move into Water Stage Orange (page 6 on the attached SOP)

Please ensure your teams understand the importance of complying with these restrictions. Currently we are producing more water than we are consuming, but it will likely be 48 hours before our inventories have recovered enough to lift restrictions. We will evaluate the Utilities data mid-day on Monday.)

·         Currently our power production is stable.

·         Fire watches remain in effect for occupied buildings. We are actively working to restore our alarm monitoring system.

·         All recreational facilities are open and accessible, and off-station recreational travel is allowed.

·         Alert Dispatch at x42555 if you see or hear a water leak or running toilet.

Thanks for your assistance.

Be well,

Pedro

when the coffee paper cups ran out, someone had the brilliant idea to use bowls. haha!

cleaning up a spill on the ice road

spill response vehicle

spill response team

I love driving pisten bullies!

bow tie tuesday and driving a PB

one of B-009's pups

team enviro getting ready to visit the penguin ranch

Leopards of Luangwa and quick trip to Mozambique

6/27/19
We had an early start to drive to the border of Zambia at Kachebere. The Malawian countryside is very nice. Most people live in little houses made out of bricks that they made and with thatched roofs. The people are so very friendly! The kids always run out to wave and yell in excitement. The adults also tend to smile and wave.

Once in Zambia we picked up supplies in the town of Chapati. The Zambian countryside is very  nice. The locals have cute little mud huts with thatched roofs. We are staying at Crocodile Valley Camp, which is right on the Luanga River, which borders South Luangwa National Park. The campsite is amazing with a swimming pool and seating areas with fires overlooking the spotlighted river, which you can observe hippos and crocs in. At night we had hippos wandering through camp and 2 elephants were within 15 feet of our tent when we headed to bed. We could hear them munching away as we lay in bed. Baboons and vervets slept in the trees above our tent, occasionally waking up to screech a bit.

6/28/19
We had an early morning game drive in South Luangwa NP. We saw lots of crocs and hippos, several giraffes, and elephants. We also saw a new species of antelope to us: the Puko. We were a bit disappointed to not have seen any cats. South Luangwa has perhaps the highest density of leopards in the world, so one of the best places to see them. The Germans that we were sharing a safari vehicle with had seen 4 leopards the day before, including one squaring off with a hyena and a cute little leopard cub.

Back at camp we had a really nice brunch. We worked on some emails (I had received notice of my initial rejection of our paper from Ecology Letters, and just relaxed at camp. We went swimming at the pool and watched the animals around camp: hippos in the the river, elephants on the outskirts of camp, and lots of baby vervets playing on the human swings and hammocks. Also some monitor lizards creeping around. It was nice just sipping beer and watching the river and vervets play.

In the early evening we went on another game drive. This time we got to see a leopard! It was in a tree with a kill. He was very handsome. We then went to the river to watch the sunset. When it got dark, we turned on the spotlight. We went back to the leopard and stayed for quite a while, watching him eat. We had a very bright spotlight, so it was a great view. On the night drive we also saw a fishing owl, a couple genets, a civet, a few hyenas, and a white-tailed mongoose. It was a really cool night drive! Unlike in Kenya and Tanzania, the land rovers here were open-sided.

6/29/19
We were up before dawn again for the drive. The pre-sunrise and sunrise were just beautiful over the dry bush landscape as we drove along. The tropical African sunrises are just amazing with the way the sky is such a deep orange and red before it rises. At one point on the drive, we had to all get out of the truck to have our hands washed and to step on a sterilization mat (and drive the truck over the mat) in order to prevent hand, foot, and mouth disease being spread. We crossed the Luangwa river over a large bridge to where our campsite is.

After setting up camp, Elisha and I hired 2 guys to take us on this double canoe catamaran thing for a paddle along the river. The river is the border with Mozambique, so we had them drop us on the Mozambique side, and we walked around there for a bit. We went over and said hello to a little family growing maize. They use fire at night as well as drums to keep hippos away from their crop. We then left Mozambique and headed back. Back in Zambia, we walked along the river for a while, and picked up a tail of many friendly kids. The little villages made of tiny mud huts with thatch  roofs in Zambia are so cute!

Halloween in McMurdo

11/9/19

We had an eventful last week here in McMurdo. Saturday night was the Halloween party. Elisha and I dressed up as giraffe and cheetah (I’m sure you can deduce, based on heights who dressed up as what). We were theming our costume after our trip through Africa. There were lots of good and creative costumes and of course plenty of dancing. Some of my favorite costumes were the Sea Ice lifeguard (dressed up by the guy who is the sea ice POC), Ms McMurdo (who was a fortune teller type person with a sweet costume) and a giant gender reveal cake). 

On Wednesday morning I woke up with crust in my eye and was diagnosed with pink-eye. They put me in room quarantine for the day. It's actually not too bad of a thing to get b/c you don't feel sick, but have to stay home from work. So I watched the Lion King, Men in Black, some tv shows, and a new movie about Lea Israel the troubled writer. I also sorted through photos.

SAR practice this week was glacier travel and self-arrest on steep slopes. It was fun as we got to rope up and walk up on the ice fall of a nearby glacier. We also got to do some ice climbing.

On Friday I flew in one of the brand new helicopters out to Marble Point to do a camp review. Marble Point is a helicopter refueling station for the nearby dry valleys (helicopter truck stop). It's not a particularly scenic area, but it sits between a glacier and the coast. The best part of it is that there are 3 people stationed there: Gavin the manager who I knew before he used to work out there, a rotating fuelie, and Karen the chef. Karen is so sweet. She used to live near Glacier NP for a while until Montana got too crowded for her and now she lives in Alaska. But she dreams of moving to the North Coast of Colombia. Anyways, coming to visit the little shack at Marble Point is like coming to grandma's house as there is a delicious home-made lunch waiting, home-made soup (sweet and sour today), fresh-baked bread, and fresh baked deserts (chocolate chip cookies and chocolate dipped rice krispy treats this time). She also has one of the best selection of teas around as well as some of the best snacks (dried fruits and nuts and things). The Marble point building looks junky from the outside but it's very homey on the inside.

This week we also attended the science lecture, which was given by 2 of the artists and writers. They are collaborating on a project called "The Last Glacier" where they are documenting the remaining glaciers. One of them is from Clemson University and the other from Montana State University. The one from Clemson makes wood carved art and the other takes photos. They then put their stuff in these giant books (like 3 feet tall) that can be viewed at museums and libraries. The talk and their project was especially meaningful to me as I love glaciers and thus far they have made books on the glaciers of Glacier NP, Rocky Mtn NP, and Kilimanjaro. This summer they visited the Rwenzori Mtns in Uganda to start a book on the glaciers there.

After the science talk we went to the coffee shop and enjoyed a fiddle performance by Colin from the waste team who is an excellent fiddler.

Yesterday (11/8) was the first day it went above freezing for the year, with a high of 34F

practicing self-arrest

our room

our tea shipment came in from Celestial Seasonings!

Colin playing fiddle

marble point

hula dancer on helo

Mt. Erebus

Halloween costumes