The weather was fine enough for the coppers, but the seas still too rough for the Aurora Australis to pump its fuel on shore to top up station supplies.
We flew in to the station at 8.00am, squeezed out of the flight suits, and then we were ready for the next inspection tour.
The route was to take us up the coast line (walking toward Sandy Bay), until we took a right up Gadgets Gully until we reached the plateau, then circle back down the spur to the station.
Walking out of the station was punctuated by having to avoid a seal here and a seal there. Then where the rusted out remains of a penguin blubber digester lay, a king penguin colony emerged. Unlike previous days where we were walking at close to double time to rush back to the station to catch our helicopter flight back to the ship, this time we had time to enjoy and awe at the absolute beauty of king penguins. We sat down so as to not intimidate the penguins, and let their curious nature do the rest. Soon we were the focus of about 10-15 penguins checking us out, and have a peck at our packs and parkas.
What a magical experience!!
Couldn't help myself, and took way to many photos (partly to show my four and six year old sons - Tristan and Kal - that I was not making this up), and after about 10 or so minutes we backed away and skirted around the sea edge of the colony to find the track up Gadget's Gully.
Gadget's Gully is a short cut up to the plateau. You basically follow the stream up to the dam at the top that supplies the station's water. It is pretty much straight up, with three ladders to get up the really steep sections. My boots aren't gortex, so got very wet feet again.
Once at the top, had some chocolate, and then walked across the plateau to the edge of the escarpment, where we found a swathe of dead tussock pedestals, and a section of the hillside that had slipped, and another section that had already slumped and was ready to go. The top soil that had gone was about half a metre deep - and again the reality of the rabbit plague hit us in the face. After taking a range of photos, we then looped back and started walking down the spur. Again, walking through stands of dead tussock pedestals criss-crossed by rabbit holes and gnawings, reinforced the urgency of the problem. Once at the stairs, we descended quickly and were back at the station right on time for lunch.
After lunch, it was time to check North Head out. This is where Tas. Parks (with mostly Commonwealth NHT $$) will erect a fence to exclude rabbits from the Head. North Head is a major breeding site for burrowing petrels amongst others. The idea is once the fence is up, rabbits will then be excluded, which should give this small section of the island a chance to recover.
Passed the grave of an expeditioner that died and was buried here, I think in the 1950s.
North Head is also where Mawson set up his radio relay station (as part of this early 20th century Antarctic expedition), and the remnants are still there. They had to haul up generators and gear - what a job given the steepness of the slopes.
At the edge of the plateau we could look down to slopes of healthy tussock (ah - the rabbits haven't got it all yet !!), and the occasional seal.
Back down the escarpment, and then a quick detour to check out Gentoo and Rock-hopper penguins, before donning our flight suits for the chopper flight back to the ship.
Dinner and then bed.
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