lichen.JPGOne week into our time in Antarctica and after travelling thousands of kilometres to look for lichen what a fantastic moment to finally see some. Not just one or two either. We seem to be camped right next to ‘Lichen City’. We found at least three different species out today and there are lots of them too. Tomorrow we will be able to start sampling in earnest. I didn’t think I would be quite so excited about finding them as I was! Now that we are here I find it even more amazing that lichen are able to survive here. It’s so extreme and we haven’t seen anything alive here except for a few humans. It was fantastic to see something else alive and I have a new found respect for these little organisms. They may not be that pretty but they are certainly very, very tough.
The fact that we have found lichens is also exciting because nobody has ever officially collected them here at the Henderson Glacier before. This is the first time that these particular lichen populations will be studied. Nobody even knew that they would definitely be here. It’s so exciting to be working on something that is so little known. What might we find out over the next few weeks?!
We’ve had a really great day exploring today. We’ve been working out where and how we are going to carry out our sampling. We climbed a summit overlooking our campsite with fantastic views over our little valley and the vast ice shelf beyond. The weather has been fantastic. Only about -12 degrees C today and brilliant sunshine. It was great to get a little bit of a look at the area that we will be working in for the next few weeks.
It’s not all fun and games though. Just in case you think that we are having too good a time over here, there are a few things that start to get pretty hard after a week of being here, once the novelty has started to wear off a bit…. So here are five of my own pet hates.
1)Frozen toothpaste- everyday I forget to warm my toothpaste so I can never squeeze it out of the tube.
2)Peeing in a bottle does not get any more fun with time.
3)Not washing gets pretty unpleasant after a while.
4)Pooing in a bag is also a little bit unpleasant-even though the view from the ‘ig-loo’ is quite spectacular.
5)Scraping ice out of the inside of my boots is another job I don’t enjoy.
So it’s not all a laugh a minute but just being here more than makes up for the hardships.
The final piece of excitement today was when our guide called the UK for a scheduled contact checkup. He got to have a quick word with the great polar explorer Ran Fiennes!