FOSSIL BLUFF

Fossil Bluff is an historic hut established in the 60's. It sits on a moraine heap on the edge of Alexander Island, overlooking the frozen George V1 Sound with the mountains of the peninsula in the background. The mountains that rise from the back of the hut are composed of layers of sedimentary rock in which there are many fossils; plants, ferns, shells etc. Aircraft used to be able to land close to the hut on the snow, but climate change has melted part of the glacier into a lake and there is now a half hour walk to get to the hut from the nearest place you can park a skidoo.

The hut itself is very cosy with an oil fired Rayburn and four bunks with sheets and Duvets!!! If the weather is good, which it was when I arrived, you can lie out on the sun deck and get a tan. When I arrived I was greeted by Hamish, who I had last seen at Rabid working on ice soundings and Jade, a marine biologist. They greeted me with freshly baked sausage rolls. Heaven after the privations of Sky Blu. People are sent to Fossil Bluff for a bit of a holiday as there are not many Twin Otter flights coming through and time is your own in between weather scheds.




There wasn't a cloud in the sky and there was no wind, so in the early evening Hamish took me on a two hour walk to Benemnite valley to look for fossils. On our return we ate dinner did the 9.00 pm sched. on the radio then the 3 of us set off up the mountain to climb Pyramid the 2,500 ' peak behind the hut. We did a big circuit in the glorious early morning light, getting back to the hut around 3.00 am. In the Antarctic you go when the weather is good. In the week I was there this, my day of arrival, turned out to the only really fine day we had.






The day before I left, on my own, I climbed Sphinx, the smaller peak overlooking the ski-way and the turquoise melt pools on the frozen Sound. I also made a small work in stone, mirroring the shape of the melt pools, but without sunlight it was hardly visible.