Campbell Island has the distinction of being the closest land to the antipodal point of the UK. The antipode of any location on the planet is the point on the globes surface diametrically opposite to it. Points that are antipodal to each other are situated such that a straight line connecting the two would pass through Earth’s centre. In other words, we are as far away from home as it is possible to get.
Far from home and in trouble. Our cabin came up on the naughty list today, so we had to go and clean our boots. Yesterday there was a general discussion on biosecurity. The issue, the problem, is cross contamination by non-native species to the sub-Antarctic islands. Back in the day it was common to introduce new species in the hope of improving things. Pigs to help castaways, plants that might grow better, that sort of thing. There was also truly little control over the accidental introduction of foreign organisms. Rats came ashore off ships. Cats were brought to control the rats. Food stuffs contained seeds which got into the local environment and so on. Unfortunately, some of these foreigners became invasive and changed the ecological balance of a whole island. Rodents could wipe out entire bird species. The avians had never dealt with mammalian predators before and were devoid of defences. Similarly, some plant species could end up displacing local, more specialised varieties. Rabbits could munch particular and rare types of vegetation into extinction. These are all valid and real concerns. The basic approach, to ensure that no cross-contamination occurs is valid. However, there is this pendulum thing again and I do wonder if some people go a bit overboard. The end of the talk explained how we could use an opened paper clip to pick the grains of sand out from the label on our boots. We were also told about a spider. This had been spotted in a corridor. It was now safely caught, identified, boxed and packed into a freezer for return to New Zealand.
Biosecurity requires that we cannot go to the toilet when we go ashore. Because a shore trip can last three or four hours this means getting yourself into a state of dehydration before you leave the ship. Half rations on the coffee at breakfast and no orange juice. Today we went for a walk up a hill. A little over 7 km up a steady slope and then back again. The weather was wet and windy. Gusting 30 knots near the top. This would have been a steady morning stroll with a flask of tea and some biscuits to have at the summit. But no food allowed. At all. Nothing. No tea. You can take some water but if you drink it then your bladder will have to suffer the consequences until you get back to the ship. It was quite a nice walk and I mostly enjoyed it. We passed several nesting albatrosses and there were some interesting views when the clouds briefly lifted. Diane found it very challenging. You are not allowed to sit down. Not even any kneeling. A few breaks, being properly hydrated and some chocolate would have made all the difference. There was a bench at the top where we had a brief respite. The wind picked up some more and the guides appeared to get into a bit of a panic. They started clucking a lot. We all had to group together. We should stop and squat down (without sitting or kneeling) if there was a strong gust. There was quite a lot of shouting, unnecessary organising and general confusion. Fortunately, as we dropped down the hillside, the wind dropped and things calmed down a bit. There was an incident with someone trying to take a selfie with an albatross on a nest and that did, quite rightly, end in a bit of a ticking off.
Getting back to the ship was a big relief in many ways.
Your narration continues to be really fascinating. Isabel and I are going on an HX trip to Antarctica next month.
David