Mawlers’ Big Adventure ’06:

The Mawlers Go Bi-polar

Deception Island Pix 12/11/06

The detritus from the old whaling station tickled us, and the swirling snow made for fascinating textures.

Here the passengers gather on deck to witness the passage from open water through Neptune's Bellows into the interior of Deception Island. That's Don Montague crossing out of the frame to the right.
This is a shot ahead of the ship into the Bellows. Kind of a narrow spot.
Once on land (we cannot really say "dry"), the ship nearly receded into the fog out in Whaler's Bay.

This series shows the wind swirling snow around the remains of the whaling station.
At times, you could see pretty clearly.
But then more gusts would come through to obscure everything.

The large whale oil tanks dominate the beach.
The tanks offer beautiful framing of the rendering plant.
Apparently, the tanks were once connected by bridges, but it is hard to imagine keeping anything like that in good repair here.

The tanks have been shoved around by wind and water, quite a bit.
These are rendering tanks in a line back toward the mountains. This was a large operation, by the looks of it. There are about three more rows like this one.
One side of the tilting tank is well off the ground, but the whole thing is quite stable and does not move in the howling winds at all. Makes you wonder what exactly made it move...

This is not the best view of the whaling station detritus, but it does show the difficulty we had keeping snow and sleet off the lenses.
The wind just chews up everything in its path, including this timber, which is little more than a series of knots.
Another shot of the rendering plant.

This building, uh, er, half a building, was part of the British station. It is slowly being reclaimed by the Antarctic.
Despite the gaping holes in the structure, inside is some small respite from rain, sleet, wind, and snow. Did you notice that the kinds of precipitation are escalating?
Incredibly, the skylight is almost entirely whole. I guess not much falls on it out here.

These three pictures are some of our favorite shots of the machinery. This one is subtle. Notice the buried gears, just barely protruding from the volcanic sands.
For this unidentified piece of machinery (winch?), the snow is covering it.
Even rust can be picturesque, making an inviting photograph in a harsh landscape of rather gruesome machinery.

A multicultural shot: British base building on the left, Norwegian graves out in the middle distance, and Antarctic moutains in the background.
We were not kidding about the graves. How often do you think the family visits? Amazingly, there was a fresh flower (carnation) on one of the graves.
Here is one of the abstract pictures of the snow against the black volcanic sands. This one looks kinda like a penguin, dontcha think?

The winds were high enough that even the penguins were just trying to weather it by hunkering down.
Sadly, they became nervous with all the tourists, so they got up to waddle to another patch of frozen ground. Strangely, they never sat behind anything...
Another abstraction in snow and sand...

The three little old men come to visit Lea Ann!

Back on the ship, warm and safe, we take a picture of Neptune's Window out of our very own porthole (cabin 408, thank you very much), which is a notch in the caldera allowing you to see out to the open ocean.

The previous installment:
First Stop: Deception Island

The next installment:
Mikkelsen Harbour


Here the passengers gather on deck to witness the passage from open water through Neptune's Bellows into the interior of Deception Island. That's Don Montague crossing out of the frame to the right.	This is a shot ahead of the ship into the Bellows. Kind of a narrow spot.	Once on land (we cannot really say "dry"), the ship nearly receded into the fog out in Whaler's Bay.


This series shows the wind swirling snow around the remains of the whaling station.	At times, you could see pretty clearly.	But then more gusts would come through to obscure everything.


The large whale oil tanks dominate the beach.	The tanks offer beautiful framing of the rendering plant.	Apparently, the tanks were once connected by bridges, but it is hard to imagine keeping anything like that in good repair here.


The tanks have been shoved around by wind and water, quite a bit.	These are rendering tanks in a line back toward the mountains. This was a large operation, by the looks of it. There are about three more rows like this one.	One side of the tilting tank is well off the ground, but the whole thing is quite stable and does not move in the howling winds at all. Makes you wonder what exactly made it move...


This is not the best view of the whaling station detritus, but it does show the difficulty we had keeping snow and sleet off the lenses.	The wind just chews up everything in its path, including this timber, which is little more than a series of knots.	Another shot of the rendering plant.


This building, uh, er, half a building, was part of the British station. It is slowly being reclaimed by the Antarctic.	Despite the gaping holes in the structure, inside is some small respite from rain, sleet, wind, and snow. Did you notice that the kinds of precipitation are escalating?	Incredibly, the skylight is almost entirely whole. I guess not much falls on it out here.


These three pictures are some of our favorite shots of the machinery. This one is subtle. Notice the buried gears, just barely protruding from the volcanic sands.	For this unidentified piece of machinery (winch?), the snow is covering it.	Even rust can be picturesque, making an inviting photograph in a harsh landscape of rather gruesome machinery.


A multicultural shot: British base building on the left, Norwegian graves out in the middle distance, and Antarctic moutains in the background.	We were not kidding about the graves. How often do you think the family visits? Amazingly, there was a fresh flower (carnation) on one of the graves.	Here is one of the abstract pictures of the snow against the black volcanic sands. This one looks kinda like a penguin, dontcha think?


The winds were high enough that even the penguins were just trying to weather it by hunkering down.	Sadly, they became nervous with all the tourists, so they got up to waddle to another patch of frozen ground. Strangely, they never sat behind anything...	Another abstraction in snow and sand...


The three little old men come to visit Lea Ann!		Back on the ship, warm and safe, we take a picture of Neptune's Window out of our very own porthole (cabin 408, thank you very much), which is a notch in the caldera allowing you to see out to the open ocean.


The previous installment: First Stop: Deception Island	The next installment: Mikkelsen Harbour