The trip to Almirante Brown Station will be one of my most memorable portions of the trip!!
Brown station is one of many Argentine stations on the Antarctic Peninsula; although with the economic situation in the country as it is, there is very little presence at these stations at present.
There are split activities again- with half the people going ashore and the other half going on zodiac cruising. Our group goes zodiac cruising first- in Paradise Bay which surrounds the base. Within the 2-hour duration of the cruise we are overwhelmed and humbled by all our sightings âto the point where one didnât know where to look! At first we cruise towards a Weddel seal on the main land- itâs pretty far though. Directly hereafter we cruise towards some floating ice that has a crab eater seal resting on it. Do yourself a favour and Google what Crabeater sealsâ teeth look like- like delicate carved jewellery! While we gaze at this seal a call on the radio alerts us to humpback whales in the bay- so we head in that direction. For the next 4 hours four whales remain playing in the bay- unusually playing very near the rocky shores where it is not very deep, and hence they surface often. I didnât take very many photos- I have pretty much none of the whales I saw on the whole trip as I just wanted to enjoy their beauty without a camera between me and them. We were all hoping to see some fluking (whale tails) but they only did that when everyone put their cameras away đ . Once we had soaked up some whale watching we headed off to the leopard seal that was resting on ice, that the kayakers spotted. It looked around at us a bit and yawned to show off its magnificent set of teeth!! On our return we did some more whale watching and spotted another Weddel seal on the ice. We turned off the engine in the hope that it would sing for us- again I refer you to Google for an amazing, nearly electronic sounding song.
Being really satisfied with that abundant wildlife experience, Iâm rearing to go on land as there is a large hill, covered in snow behind the station that one can slide down on. You do have to climb a pretty steep hill each time you want to slideâŚbut thatâs part of the fun!
As a group of us start hiking up the hill in deep snow our attention is drawn to a great big noise: one of the nearby glaciers has calved and created a large wave that rippled across the bay and the noise echoed between the mountains.
After a 10-minute climb we get to the top. I get myself ready- all you need is the waterproof pants and our red jackets. These are slippery enough and off you go!! It takes a while to sort out what works best but then Iâm off; legs lifted and quickly speeding down the hill. Towards the bottom I hit a bump, turn around and do the final bit on my stomach, like the penguins sometimes do.
It was so much fun that I brave the hill climb again for #2⌠and it was fabulous!! So fabulous indeed that after a couple of minutes to catch my breath I went up for #3!
Upon my arrival in the queue up top I remember telling everyone that sliding down this hill is âLike a drug!â. I did some quick calculations thoughâŚhow would one increase speed in this scenario. Decrease friction- but this was not possible. So⌠physics would suggest that an increase in mass would increase velocity. How does one increase mass instantly? GO TANDEM!! It didnât take much to convince Ross to join me. Ross sat in poll positions, I hooked my legs onto him, he held on and we were offâŚtook a little while to sort ourselves out but when we did we shot down that slope like a rocket!! It was soooo much fun!! All until we hit the last bump in the slide and I smashed my face into the back of Rossâs head!
From the bottom of the hill, where there was a bit of a crowd⌠I just heard comments of âWow, they are going so fastâ and then âOh no thereâs a lot of blood!â. Yeah, once I landed at the bottom of the hill one of the ladies who is a nurse ran up to me, wiped my face down to check where the bleeding was coming from and confirmed that I had a cut on my nose. I, in turn also told her that the nose was bleeding on the inside- I could taste all the blood. Our expedition leader rushed to me to help me up and take me to the zodiac to get to the shipâs doctor. She constantly checked up on me for dizziness, coordination, pain etc. I could tell, from the look on peoplesâ faces, that there was a lot of blood on my face; however due to the adrenalin I did not feel any pain. Over the radio, our expedition leader asked one of the guides to clean up the blood.
The doctor cleaned me up â I did enquire as to why she was wiping my eyebrows and cheeks and everywhere- she confirmed that Iâm covered in blood. She first placed a plaster on the cut- but it bled right through, so she used some skin glue- which worked like a charm. I had some swelling on the forehead, but no further signs of concussion etc. I was super glad to have all my teeth and no broken nose!! I applied an icepack every few hours.
At dinner I got many questions of concern, but relief that I was there⌠I did mention that I lost a lot of blood, but not my appetite J. I didnât realise just how long the blood trail was until people who saw the incident starting telling me their version of events:
- Jo, you slid down the slope, holding your nose, with blood dripping everywhere- and yet you still had a smile on your face
- Jo⌠it looked like a penguin died on that slope!
- We had a person who stopped sliding part way down the slope and wasnât sure where the slide wasâŚand everyone just shouted back: âFollow the blood!â
- Our expedition photographer managed to take a few pics prior to clean up and showed them to me. His statement was that the photos do not depict just how epic it was⌠I asked him what sort of a photographer he was if he couldnât capture that đ
The next morning, I was dreading looking in the mirror- I just imagined that I would have two black eyes and nose and that I would look as if I were beaten up! So I walked into a dark bathroom, closed my eyes and switched on the lights⌠and I looked OK- no colour changes!! Yeah!!
2 replies on “Almirante Brown Station”
Post accident photo looks quite dramatic…I am glad that you are OK
Glad your OK đ