Zolotov Is

Now quad trained and ready to go, we took off with Tim, Didier and Dave (the pilot now stranded at Davis waiting for a plane to fly!) and headed to the penguin rookery on Zolotov Island, near the Sorsdal Glacier to the south of Davis station. One of the main reasons for this trip was to check sea-ice conditions in areas where it traditionally melts out early. It was great fun belting along on the quads. Next to the Glacier, the sea-ice was like wet glass! It was impossible to keep the quads straight, I am not sure how they managed to gather any momentum with he wheels having so little traction. Occasionally you come across things that have the unfortunate ability of providing a lot of friction very quickly. Tide cracks around 30cm wide were pretty common, as were small bands of blown snow that sit on the ice (kind of like small Sastrugi). If you hit one of these while you were side-ways, you would know about it! Anyway, we got to see a fair bit of the country to the South of station, a whole lot of penguins and (by Antarctic standards at least) a small glacier. Here's a pic showing a whole lot of Adelie Penguins on Zolotov, with the Sordsal glacier in the background. Riding quads on sea-ice along the edge of a glacier - only in Antarctica!