King Edward Point Diary – June 2006

30 June, 2006 King Edward Point

It is now November 2006, so my apologies for the lateness of this newsletter. So here are a lot of pictures for that month with a few lines of what was going on. I’d also like to say hello to all my family and friends and hope they are all well.

Mid-winter greetings 2006

This is our midwinter greeting to the other Antarctic bases. We are dressed like this as South Georgia is classed as the banana belt, and it wasn’t cold, honest!

June was the month, which kicked off South Georgia’s ski season. Skiing started on the easy slopes behind grytvikken. There are no ski lifts here so you have to put the miles in to ski the slopes. Ski mountaineering boots, alpine skis and skins are the norm for here. Telemark skis are also popular here too.

The first ski day was a beautifully clear cold day and there were a few eager participants on the slopes. A good time was had by all.

During june we also have midwinter. This is a week where generally the whole base gets to relax a little.The proceedings start with a midwinter swim and a rewarm in the sauna and a couple of apple schnapps.

As you can see it was a nice clear day although we were in the shade, which made it a really chilly experience. A few brave souls made the plunge more than once.

After this we have a huge sit down meal with about 7 courses. The food was all delicious and cooked by ourselves, as we have no chef down here to cater for us. We also had a guest in the form of James from the foreign office. He joined in the day’s proceedings and seemed to enjoy himself.

In fact a good day was had by all, as seen by the picture of one of our boating officers and the meal continued on into the evening.

After the meal the midwinter gifts were presented. These are hand made by base members who get a name drawn out of a hat and have to make a present for that person. As you can see our other boating officer was extremely happy with the new wheel for Quest.

During the week’s festivities we had a pub crawl where various rooms were converted into themed bars for a quick tipple. My bar was called The Electric Chair and I gave a short reading of an account of someone being executed in one. It was rather macabre. I also hooked up a tester so people could sample a real electric shock. It was a good night and fun was had by all.

During June there were a couple of camping trips, the first one being Ali, Charlotte, and Sarah to Maivikken. This was early June just before we had the big snow.

The second trip was Steve and Emmas to Sorling. This was after we had the big dump of snow and as you can see they had some fine weather.

I put this picture in because it is a great one of the glacier and shows the size of some of the bergs that get washed ashore [which makes great ice for drinks].

During June Quest was taken out for a bit of a spruce up. There was a lot of sanding down and painting going on.

And finally, our midwinter 2006 photo. Bye for now.

HAPPY MIDWINTER 2006!

Adrian Hosey [KEP Electrician]