Tinderbox and beyond: Scott's Hut and Ross Ice Shelf

Continued - Day 17. Monday 27 January – Ross Island: Cape Evans and Ross Ice shelf

While we were having lunch the captain re-positioned the ship eight miles south, passing the Barne Glacier.

Our next landing was at Scott’s Terra Nova’s expedition hut erected in 1911 at Cape Evans, named for Lieutenant Edward Evans, second in command.

To enter the environs from which Captain Scott left for the South Pole, destined to never return, frozen in both time and reality, was quite eerie.

Before we could enter the hut we had the usual rigorous shoe cleaning procedure.

The dark interior has been recreated as close as possible as if the men were just out for a sortie. Scott and his officers occupied the Wardroom, which was partitioned off with supply boxes from the men from the lower ranks who lived on the Mess Deck.

The beds still had their fur sleeping bags and woollen clothes on them or hanging up to dry, shelves still had supplies.

The scientist’s lab and dark room were stocked and Scott’s office still some books. The 15 officers (including scientists) and 9 men (including two Russians) spent the winter of 1911. For the second winter over, some staff left and new people arrived.

Many artifacts such as two anchors from the Ross Sea Party ship Aurora, left on the beach in 1915.

Adjoined to one outside wall were the horse pens complete with their own blubber stove,

and some of the blubber was still lying in frozen chunks on the ground. On the wall were spare sled runners.

The memorial cross to Mackintosh, Hayward and Spencer-Smith of the Ross Sea Party was on Wind Vane Hill behind the hut .

Yet another view of Mt Erebus with its small trail of cloud streaming away.

At 1.30 am Rodney made an announcement that we were approaching the Ross Ice Shelf. The sun low in the sky was still very bright as we neared Cape Crozier and the vast ice cliff, but it was difficult to take photos of the shelf because we were looking straight into the sun.

At 2 am we were positioned at 77^o25’S 169^o33’E.

The vast floating Ross Ice Shelf discovered by Ross in 1841 (which is the area of France) was certainly awe-inspiring. .

It was on the eastern corner of the shelf that Amundsen set up his base camp for his race to the South Pole. All the remains of his camp have now slid into the ocean as the shelf gradually breaks off and floats away and eventually melts.

The face of the ice shelf appeared to have been sculpted by a giant artist’s pallet knife, while below the 50 m high face, wave cut ice was a beautiful turquoise colour. With wave action a sucking and crashing sound could be heard from beneath the over-hanging ice. It was very difficult to gauge its height with no scale objects except the ship, and the Captain kept us at a respectful distance for safety - in case of any large chunks calving off.The average thickness of the ice is 330 m - to 700m with about 1/7th below the surface; narrower at the edges where it meets Cape Crozier..

The rugged landscape of windswept Cape Crozier was interesting. We glimpsed the location near The Knoll, where Dr Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers and Apsley Cherry- Garrard, built their ‘rock igloo’ during their famous ‘worst journey in the world’ in July 1911, described in a book of that name by Cherry-Garrard (he never ventured on any wild adventures for the rest of his life!). The tortuous trip in mid winter was solely to collect some Emperor penguin eggs for research. In winter a series of ‘ice canyons’ provide comparative shelter for Emperor Penguins breeding here on the sea ice.

The large Adelie Penguin colony nearby still has a message post from Scott’s Discovery expedition (1901-1904).