Out and about on the ice .. (part 3 of 3)
Wednesday 8th March 2000

... continued

Most tide cracks are generally straight, but sometimes you come across ones that are very odd shapes - including this curvy one which was only 20mm wide. The last place we visited that evening was Bechervaise Island where there is a large Adelie penguin rookery.	A curvy tide crack
At this time the Adelie chicks had just begun to hatch and they looked like small brown golf balls with a head stuck on top. These signs of new life contrasted with the death that I saw at the start of the day.	A recently "used" Adelie egg shell

After a long 8 hours of walking, and plenty of pictures (Colin took about 6 x 36 rolls, while I took about 2) we headed back to Mawson and walked into Horseshoe Harbour. I dragged the sledge all the way, mainly because it was not very difficult and I enjoyed doing something different. Sledges are the best way to carry your gear when walking on ice because you can load them up with 100kg+ of equipment and not even notice them apart from a slight jerk now and then on the harness you need to wear.

Walking home back into Mawson

Walking over the ice is definitely an under-rated activity since most people automatically assume the use of a motorised transport such as a Quad or a Hagg, but after a long walk I had got a great deal of satisfaction out of taking the slow, quiet and pollution free approach to travelling over the sea ice. Needless to say I slept well that night! Cheers, Kym

Back to part 1, part 2