Caning Along the Cane Line

While we don't have any actual roads down here, there are routes between the field huts and the runway that are marked by canes set up in a nice neat line and, with all imagination possible, are called cane lines. The canes are made from bamboo cut into 4 to 6 metre lengths and have a steel can tied to them about 3/4 of the way up.

The idea is two fold:

1. When driving in really bad weather where the wind is strong and the visibility virtually non-existant and by having the route marked with these canes set at reasonable intervals apart, we can have a pretty good idea of where the route is. Following the GPS also helps...
2. Also, with the steel cans being picked up by the radar, that system can also be followed. Back-ups for back-ups and all that.

Last week I went with Mick and Matty for a couple of days worth of drilling ice, placing canes and generally having a good time with the machinery we took with us. We left later than expected and dragged a hut, known as The Silver Chalet, behind a tractor. Yup, we took our house with us like snails (thanks for that one mum!). As the days are so short, by the time we reached the start point at 5.30pm, the sun had been down for a couple of hours and we were hungry, so we set up the Chalet and got to work on unfreezing dinner. Good thing we've got a chef on station to prepare all this delicious food.

The night was windy but we were toasty warm in the hut. I'd like to say we had another late start because of how warm were over night, but the real reason was that an alarm was set to remind us to fill up the generator... at 2.30am. All we could here was "boing, boing, boing, boing" coming from somewhere in the hut. Took about 5 minutes to find the offending iPod in a cupboard, which was duly put next to the culprit's head who failed to wake up until he was yelled at, turned off the alarm (or so we thought) and then "boing, boing, boing" came back about 15 minutes later. So, a restless night and a late start was followed by a spectacular sunrise and brilliant day. We spent the day with one of us on the quad bike, one driving the Hagg and one driving the tractor with the quad and Hagg people doing the drilling and cane placement every 250m. The process was slow as we had to keep the track exactly on the GPS route, plus the tractor only goes about 15km/h with that kind of load on the back. Another short day with first light around 8.30am and sunrise about 10.45am, the sun saying 'hello' for about 3hrs and last light fading by 3.30pm, all followed by a beautifully starry night with a sickle moon and slight aurora. Pity none of the moon and aurora photos came out very well.

The amazing pre dawn light.

The red Hagg carrying a drill on the back and the tractor pulling the Silver  Chalet

We actually rested well that night and were up at 8.00am to get an early start to finish the job, then plod along on our way back to station. We finally arrived just in time to catch the last part of light which helped us with refuelling the vehicles and packing everything up. All in all a great trip out, but I've left off one important thing: there's no toilet attached to the hut and we don't leave any waste out in the field. For pee we have large buckets with screw top lids that also take the grey water and for poo, we have the wag bag. You haven't lived until you've squatted behind a tractor for protection from the wind in the middle of nowhere in Antarctica and taken a dump in a bag, all while your fingers slowly freeze. Needless to say I held on as long as I could and made sure I only had to do it once in the trip. Has to be said, it was one of the best views I've had while squatting.

I'm not sure how well it can be seen, but on the horizon and especially on the right are some heat lines causing weird reflections and refractions off the ice.

I drew a face!