Macca field huts

I love life in the field. There’s nothing more wonderful than staying in a hut away from it all – especially when you look out the window and see a magnificent beach smothered in penguins and elephant seals.

There’s a variety of huts on Macca, spaced strategically around the island. The permanent Antarctic Division huts – 5 in total – are used not just by researchers and Parks and Wildlife staff, but also by station staff going out on jollies (the Antarctic way of saying ‘holiday’).

The two googie huts (one at Brothers Point and the other at Waterfall Bay) look like orange UFOs. Like all Macca huts they have a wooden cold porch attached (the cold porch is where boots, jackets, packs and surplus food are stored).

The West Coast only has one permanent hut (at Bauer Bay), there’s another at the southern tip of the island at Hurd Point next to a MASSIVE royal penguin colony.

My favourite hut of all though is the one at Green Gorge, about halfway down the eastern side of the island. It’s tucked in under a cliff at the southern end of a cobble beach. The beach is bisected by a pretty stream, and currently home to a large elephant seal harem and a growing colony of king penguins with their maturing chicks. The giant petrels and skuas are also back in large numbers, always looking for a feed of ele seal placenta or sick/dying pups and chicks. On the cliffs the sooty albatross are starting to nest.

There are a couple of outbuildings alongside Green Gorge hut. One is a toolshed and the other is called the Shangri-La. It’s a big food store, and the little sheltered porch outside of it has been modified into a bathing/showering space. A few months ago Pete constructed a bucket shower with little holes in one side of the lid. You fill the bucket with warm water, hoist it to the ceiling with a rope, and hey presto – a luxurious spray of warm water under which you can soap up and wash your hair. You need to be quick though, because the air temperatures are still a little nippy.

The other type of hut currently on Macca is the water tank hut – there’s 5 of those. They’ve been brought in especially for the Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Project.

As their name suggests, the huts are modified water tanks that have received some serious interior decoration. Their small size makes them ‘cosy’ inside, and although there are four bunks, they’re really only suitable for two people…. though it depends who you’re sharing the hut with. I stayed for three nights with Dean and Nancye in Tiobunga Hut last week and it was just fine. We left the door slightly ajar at night to stop the condensation, and this made sleeping on the top bunk much more comfortable (when the door is shut the walls weep). It still felt slightly claustrophobic (the ceiling is about 30 cm from your face), but the fine company made it all worth it.

Each watertank hut has a small cold porch, built out of the pods in which the bait and other supplies were transported for the rabbit eradication project.

Three of the huts are located on the plateau – including Tio - which is very often shrouded in mist. The big issue with the plateau huts is that there is no handy beach on which you can do your business in the morning. Instead you poop into a bag suspended on a makeshift toilet consisting of a stand and a toilet seat, then tuck the bag and its contents into a plastic poo jar that you empty at the beach when you get there. There is an art of pooing into a bag, such as adequately lining it with talcum powder first (I will now forever associate the smell of talcum powder with excrement). You also want to make sure there is no air left in the bag, because the bag might pop when you’re trying to squeeze it into the poo jar. Dana called this whole practice ‘degrading’, and Tony another one of the hunters can make himself hold his waste for up to three days at a time.

The other two water tank huts are located on the coast. The one at Davis Point on the West Coast is the most beautifully-located I reckon. It has sweeping coastline on both sides, a large lawn-like area in behind it and steep mountain-like hills rising up beyond that.

The other water tank is at Caroline Cove west of Hurd Point hut in the south. The area has a bit of an aura or taboo associated with it, because it has permanent restricted access (though I and the rest of the MIPEP team can access it  for operational purposes). Caroline Cove is home to some pretty rare birds, including a small number of nesting wandering albatross. There’s a large natural amphitheatre, which houses a royal penguin colony (they hop their way along a steep creek halfway up a mountain to get there). Below the hut is a sheltered cove that’s home to gentoo penguins and more ele seals. It’s the furthest hut from station, and feels like a lost world. It’s great. Danny and I spent two days there, filming. My highlight was finding a tiny snail, no larger than 2 mm in diameter. That’s as big as that particular species gets apparently.

And that’s all I have to say about Macca field huts at the moment. 

Green Gorge hut with Melissa and Peter

Gary, Tama and Joker at Waterfall Bay hut

The location of Caroline Cove hut

Inside Green Gorge hut

Inside Tiobunga aka Tio hut, a water tank hut

Tio hut sits on the plateau

Bauer Bay - three days of sunshine and blizzards

Rock off North Head

Rabbit damaged hill

West Coast heading towards Bauer Bay

Rabbit damage

Remains of the enemy

Looking out of Eagle Cave

Ele seal 

Ele seal bull

Mel and Wags on the featherbed

Gary and Mel rendez-vous at Aurora Cave

Wags with megasize bone

Gentoos

Evening light on the featherbed

Awesome acommodation

Ele seal skeleton

Ele seal tracks

After the rain

Bauer Bay hut

Me with my favourite skeleton

Meet 'Mountain Woman' Williams

Last week I spent three days filming with the lovely Nancye W.

It turns out that Nancye could give Bear Grylls a run for his money any day of the week. “See that mountain?” she asked me as we stood on the misty plateau. ‘Yes…?” was all I could manage  (as I was still recovering from having just sidled up the steep grassy jump-up out of Waterfall Bay). “Well, that’s where we’re going,” she informed me cheerily.

Like the other six MIPEP team dog handlers, Nancye spends 28 days out hunting one of the six blocks that Macquarie Island has been divided into.  This month she’s working the fourth block down.  When I caught up with her, she and her hunting partner Tony were based out of Waterfall Bay hut, a googie hut that resembles an orange UFO.

The team is working the block systematically. While Tony walks on a north-south axis, Nancye and her two dogs Finn and Katie work from east to west, usually two sweeps a day.

For the purposes of filming, Nancye relaxed her routine slightly – the moonscape-like plateau can get a little monotonous on camera after a while. So on the second day, after a morning of climbing mountains, we veered north to walk around Earnslaw Lake (a large tarn), where Nancye’s favourite dog Katie promptly decided to go for a swim.  The return trip via the escarpment took longer than expected, and by the end of the day we realized we’d walked for nine hours.

That’s why it was such a nice surprise when Tony had a platter of hors d’oeuvres waiting for us back at the hut on our return. Cheese, ham from a tin, smoked mussels (also a la tin), pickled onions and crackers were devoured with such enthusiasm that noone had room for dinner.

The third day was equally eventful. We spent the morning on the plateau again, and yes climbed another mountain (the top of which was so windy that my beanie blew off my head… amazingly I found it again, thanks to its hot shade of neon orange). We dropped down the escarpment for lunch, and located a cosy nook in the tussock overlooking Lusitania Bay. The beach was packed with hundreds of raucous king penguins and chicks. Further out at sea the elephant and leopard seals were hunting penguins and giant petrels floating on the water. Unfortunately you can’t sit and watch the natural dramas for long, because the cold starts turning your cheeks and lips into funny shades of purply-blue.

So we continued north along the coast, where we came across nesting giant petrels, a sleepy leopard seal, king penguins and huge elephant seal bulls. The coastal areas need to be searched for rabbits just as intensively as any other area, but Nancye is very conscientious about disturbing the wildlife as little as possible, bringing her voice down to a whisper at times.

Tony once again had a platter waiting for us on our return, and was stirring a delicious-smelling stew prepared with the last of the beef that the pair had carried out from station. For dessert Nancye served up some of her delicious home-made slice. Even the dogs feasted that night, their dinner supplemented with a stew made from beef trimmings and out-of-date canned vegetables.

I had a new spring in my step when we parted ways the next day, thanks in part to Nancye and Tony’s fine hospitality, as well as their amazing attitude towards their work.  Thanks guys, you’re an inspiration.

Nancye and Gary stop for lunch

Nancye and Tony overlooking Lusi Bay

Overlooking Waterfall Bay

Quiet time before lights out

West Coast

On the plateau

Claudia - unofficial mail courier

Macquarie Island is full of pretty tech-savvy people. But when you’re in the field there’s no such thing as Facebook, Twitter or emails.  And the radio, well, that’s only for relaying essential information and everyone can hear what you’re saying anyway.

That’s why writing letters the old-fashioned way – with pen and paper - has become the latest trend on Macquarie Island. Peter P and I, whose jobs involve moving from one MIPEP team to the next, have become unofficial mail couriers. Whether it’s a hastily scribbled note to simply say “I miss you”, or a more thoughtful two-pager carefully sealed with multi-coloured tape, MIPEP team members have become very active in sending their latest news and thoughts to each other via letter.

So what IS the latest news?

Workwise - last week there was fresh rabbit sign spotted near Landgon Point so a posse of rabbit trackers including Pete K, Ben T, Dean and Sandy concentrated their efforts on finding the perpetrator - but no luck as yet.

Gary B spent a few days with dog handlers Nancye and Mel to compare notes on how best to run the dogs, and together they tried to cover as much area as possible while there was fresh snow on the ground (that’s because snow is very good at holding rabbit scent – dinner table fact for the day).

In the meantime, Tony has been clocking up the miles as he systematically hunts on a north-south axis out of Waterfall Bay Hut, and was an absolute trooper for helping Wayne (who had a sore back) all the way back to station from Tiobunga Hut (a full day hike).

Jack, who’s been writing letters to partner Dana, has no doubt been telling her how much he enjoys spot-lighting between Tio and Windy Ridge Huts.

And last but not least the lovely Mel also turns out to be an avid letter-writer, relaying how much she’s enjoying her first month in the field (she was based at station all of last month). She’s been cooking up a storm at Brothers Point Hut, including her very own chocolate and cherry birthday cake on Friday, which she shared with Ben H, Peter P and me…

…  a very yummy incentive for us to keep delivering the mail on time.  

As unofficial Macca postie, Pete will brave all conditions...

...and I will climb mountains for the mail to be delivered on time

A fortnight in the field