Today, I walked from McMurdo (US base) to Scott Base (the New Zealand aka "Kiwi" base), which is about two miles away over a big hill by road. The two bases coordinate quite a lot with the U.S. providing flights on/off the continent as well as some intracontinental flight support, while the Kiwis allow USAP (US Antarctic Program) personnel to use Christchurch as a jumping off point (see my post from a few days ago) and provide McMurdo with left-over energy from their windmills that power their base. Scott Base is much smaller, which a summer population of <100 people. McMurdo on the other hand, has a population of 700-1100ish during the summer months. For this reason, as well as others, USAP personnel aren't allowed on the Kiwi base except to visit the store during certain hours every day and to visit the bar once a week. My visit today was to the store with Erica (another Polenet seismologist) and JR - our Kiwi mountaineer.
But... as things tend to do, this little shopping trip became an adventure. As we reached the edge of Scott Base after descending a rocky trail, sirens suddenly started going off. Confused about what to do, we walked around to the store - not seeing a soul. Finding no one in the store nor signs on where to go, and since the sirens had stopped, we sat outside 15 minutes are so, before deciding to walk around and try to find the muster point. (There were, of course a few jokes about what might be going on.) Still, we didn't find any people, but did find trucks that were left running, and large pieces of machinery half-way through the jobs they were doing. It was like they'd all be abducted by aliens - or like a haunted Antarctic base.
Finally, (maybe 30 minutes after we arrived) people started stirring, and a very grumpy woman (the first truly unfriendly Kiwi I've ever met!!!) found us at the store and told us they had been having a fire drill. Turns out their muster point is the bar. (Hmmm...) She chewed out our mountaineer a bit, though I'm not sure what we really did wrong. We came during proper hours, and how were we supposed to know they were having a drill? And, when I asked if we should join them in the bar if we found ourselves there during an actually emergency, I received an eat-shit-and-die look. I think she thought I was making a joke, but I was quite serious. What's the protocol if you're visiting a foreign base and something terrible happens? It was an adventure, and I got a cool tshirt and whiskey glass. Also worth noting, the views on the walk to/from Scott Base are lovely. I'll try to take pictures the next time I make the hike.
The last thing worth noting is that I'm still fighting the crud. I no longer have a sore throat, but now have a deep chesty cough that makes people look at me funny. Although I feel mostly okay, I'm pretty tired by the end of the day, and am determined not to let this turn into bronchitis in the cold dry weather (as happened last year). So, how do you fight respiratory infections in Antarctica? Like this:
And like this:
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