Heading South

It is now two weeks since I jetted off on my adventure South, and as I write this is feels like I’m going through a patch of turbulence again.  However I’m not on a plane - I am being jolted about as our ship, the JCR (James Clark Ross) makes her way through sea ice around the South Orkneys.  It is breathtakingly beautiful here. 

 

As the JCR pushes floes aside, krill is thrown up from ice shelves below the water and pure white Snow Petrels swoop down to pick up an easy meal.  They are silhouetted as they climb against the low dark clouds as flecks of darting bright white.  The scene around is monochrome, with the water an inky black and the ice floes glowing blindingly white even in the gloom of the clouds.  The snow flecked black ranges of the South Orkneys rise majestically from the ice but the peaks are truncated by the clouds.  Whispers of colour are provided by blue glacial ice in the mountains and icebergs.

Coronation Island, South Orkneys.  It really was black, white and blue!

Up on the Monkey Island (the highest accessible part of the ship outside) the sea ice stretches as far as the eye can see.  It will take us almost 24hrs to crawl our way out to open seas again and onwards to South Georgia.

Preparing to go

This time next month I'll be on my way to South Georgia!  The last few months have flown by in a blur and I now can't wait to get going.  I'll be flying on 4th November on the Falkland Islands airbridge - a 22hr flight via Ascension Island (EDIT: looks like I'll be flying the long way now via Chile....with BAS the itinerary is never firm until you are on a plane and in the air!).  In Stanley I'll join the BAS ship RRS JCR (James Clark Ross) as she sails south to Signy Island and then on to KEP, South Georgia.

The focus has now shifted from medical training (and completing MSc module assignments!) to BAS-related preparation...

The Appendix Question

I had a great time on the Basic Surgical Skills Course - all docs should do it!

It has been a while since I last wrote and my time here in Plymouth seems to be flying by. Us BASMU docs are still feeling privileged to have the opportunity to refresh our medical knowledge in a whole range of specialities, and have been introduced to new skills too.
‘So you’ve be learning how to take someone’s appendix out then?’...

Hello Plymouth!

Well I'm here, and I've finally managed to take a picture of Plymouth without rain!  It turns out that Plymouth is statistically wetter than Manchester...

I have fond memories of holidays in Cornwall as a child, but have not been back to the South West as an adult. 

(If this sentence is the last text visible then click "read more" just below to...read more!  Turns out some people had not realised this before - Mum!  Otherwise just keep reading!)

Goodbye New Zealand

Well the time has come and I'm leaving New Zealand to start my new adventure

Hello

Welcome to my blog!  You can read all about me here, and where I will be living and working here