Claudia on Macca: Field training

This is the post I wrote for the Macca online newsletter:

Field training

Powdery snow, moody ocean, penguin chicks, elephant seals, giant petrels, icy lakes – it was hard to know where to look first for the recent Macca arrivals who did their field training this week.
The MIPEP team dog handlers headed out for two days and a night on Friday, followed a day later by the newbie hunters – Tom, Ben H, Dana – and Claudia who’s filming the MIPEP project for the next 4 months.
While the dog handlers stayed at Brothers Point Hut, the hunting team took the Island Lake Track to the cosy lodgings at Bauer Bay. It was somewhat surreal sleeping in a hut stashed with 9 months worth of food – including all the Family Assorted biscuits anyone could ever wish to eat!
When the hunting team woke the next morning they found an ample dump of snow had covered the hills. With the wind howling outside, Marty decided to impart his navigational knowledge in the warm confines of the hut before the crew set out to the other side of the island. Ben did a marvelous job of stomping footholes into the thigh high drifts.
The descent into Sandy Bay was breathtaking, with seals and a few king penguins lounging around the beach that led to Brothers Point Hut, where the team stopped for lunch. At around 1:45 pm they set off again, heading north along the snowy beach towards station, passing a small king penguin crèche and several giant petrels along the way. Tom recokoned it was the best walk he’d ever done in his life, and the rest of the crew couldn’t wipe the smiles off their faces. Dana decided to go for a little dunk in the creek before the group rounded the Nuggets, made their way past the rusting penguin digesters and scrambled along the last leg of shoreline by torchlight before returning to a delicious curry prepared by Peter P and Jane under the ever-talented eye of Danny le chef.

View from Brothers Point Hut - end of July