Thursday 28 March 2013

Barneo Ice Camp, a russian North Pole seasonal camp and ... marathon !


This is not a piece of land, it's more like a mad fantasy on floating ice in the Arctic.


Barneo Ice Camp is a Russian temporary drift station, established on an ice floe on the frozen Arctic Ocean, near the North Pole.

The first Barneo ice base was established in 2002. Since then it's been anually sponsored by the Russian Geographical Society and normally lasts from late March to middle or late April. For more than 10 years, this tent-town has appeared on the map for just 40 days !

Flights to Barneo operate from Longyearbyen in Svalbard Island, the Antonov An-74 being the most regular plane to land there.


The exact coordinates change with the ice drifting under strong winds and ocean currents. In 2007, Barneo was located at about 89°31.5′N,30°27′W.

Barneo base complex includes an ice runway as part of the project. Because of the constant moving ice on the Arctic Ocean, Barneo has to be rebuilt from scratch each year. 

The seasonal camp sets up in late March every year, through a complex series of logistics incorporating Ilyushin-76, Antonov-74 and Mi-8 flights from Moscow and Siberia, parachute and skydiver drops, specialist advisers and observers.


Camp facilities include heated accommodation tents with comfortable bedding, a large mess tent and kitchen serves regular hot meals, provides 24-hr tea, coffee and snacks and houses a souvenir store with Arctic and North Pole memorabilia.

The Mess tent - food, coffee and shop


The complex and the camp activities are organized by the Russian Geographical Society.

Accomodation tents.
The tents have double-thick floors and covers, a small antechamber for insulation and a washstand.

Temperatures at Barneo can easily reach under -40ºC.
In late April the warmer temperatures begin to take effect. The ice begins to melt and weaken, time to end Barneo's short spring. 


The Antonov 74 is the most frequent transport to and from Barneo.


Depending on the base's location, excursions to the actual North Pole can be conducted on skis, by dog sled, or by helicopter.

A MI-8 Helicopter from Barneo, landed by the North Pole.

The North Pole sign also drifts with the ice, so its location quickly becomes wrong... A GPS device will show constantly changing coordinates.

Barneo site:

The North Pole Marathon

Since 2003, this yearly race starts at Barneo Camp for a 42.195km running distance.


The course is run entirely on frozen water, passing through the Geographic North Pole, in the heart of the Arctic Circle, under extreme sub-zero temperatures.




A unique event, man alone VS. the infinite ice.


A letter from the North Pole is now easy to send - but only at Barneo Camp, while it lasts !

Tuesday 19 March 2013

Kerguelen, remote but magnificent sub-antarctic islands

This time we go to the deep South, to a remote and desolate piece of land:

The Kerguelen Islands, also known as the Desolation Islands, are a subantarctic group of islands in the southern Indian Ocean, at around 49º South (Ushuaia is at 54º S). They belong to the antarctic plate, and they are of volcanic origin.



The islands are part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. This is one of the most isolated places on Earth, being more than 3300 km away from the nearest civilized location.


The main island of the archipelago is called La Grande Terre. It measures 150 km east to west and 120 km north to south. The main base, the so-called "capital" of the islands, is Port-aux-Français, located along the eastern shore of Grande Terre.

Overall, the glaciers of the Kerguelen Islands's ice cap cover just over 500 km². The islands are treeless, with scarce vegetation, but in spite of its rudeness they display some amazing landscapes.

In the extreme north, the Arche of Kerguelen, the best known feature of the islands

Vallée des Skuas

The vegetation is tundra-like lichens, mosses and the famous native speciality, Kerguelen cabbage:



The weather could even be acceptable if the permanent wild winds would not fustigate the land day and night. The winds also contribute to the cleanliness and purity of air and water.
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But let me start by the main settlement, a scientific research and meteorological station:

Port-aux-Français
Coordinates: 49°21′S, 70°13′E


Port-aux-français is the main settlement of the Kerguelen, a permanent research station found on the 1950s.

The oldest building, La Tour Météo (meteo tower)

There are no indigenous inhabitants, but France maintains a permanent presence of 50 to 100 scientists, engineers and researchers, and a military force too.


Facilities include scientific-research buildings, a satellite tracking station, dormitories, a hospital, a library, gym, a pub, and the chapel of Notre-Dame des Vents.

Logements de Marins

There are no trees in Kerguelen, though some tree fossiles seem to prove the islands were once forested. But men are stubborn, and do like trees; so the only ones to be seen in all the territory are these thuyas (a kind of cypress) by the health-clinic cabin:


They should be tall trees, but are "decapitated" by the unstoppable winds, so they grow up only to the top of the buildings that protect them.

There is no airport on the islands - just a heliport - , so all travel and transport from the outside world is conducted by ship.

'L'aventure', the boat that usually transports people from port to port and between islands.

'Biomar' Lab and Mount Ross at sunset, by the Morbihan Gulf's waters, near the port.

Port Jeanne d'Arc


Port Jeanne d'Arc is a former whaling station founded by a Norwegian whaling company in 1908.


The derelict settlement consists of four residential buildings with wooden walls and tin roofs, and a barn. Some of it has been restored and is presently in use. It's the second main settlement, and it keeps some historic testimonies of the whale-hunting era.

There is also a fishing station at Lac d'Armor, established in 1983, 40 km west of Port-aux-Français, for the acclimatization of salmon, as the waters here are among the purest in the planet. And several cabins through the islands at strategic locations, for shelter or meteorological research.

HISTORY

The islands were discovered by the French navigator Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen on 1772.

Until the XXth century, the archipelago was regularly visited by whalers and sealers (mostly British, American and Norwegian) who hunted the resident populations of whales and seals. They introduced populations of rabbits, sheep and reindeer.

Kerguelen has been continually occupied since 1950 by scientific research teams, with a population of 50 to 100 frequently present.

Some special sites:

The Gallieni peninsula, on the south of Grande Terre

This is the most picturesque and amazing area. The highest point, Mount Ross, has an elevation of 1850 meters.


'It's a crazy mountain, like a castle of some fantastic comics, with frost-covered towers'.


Grande Terre has numerous bays, inlets, fjords, and coves, as well as several peninsulas and promontories.

Baie Larose and its peculiar Doigt de Sainte Anne (St. Ann's Finger), on the east side of Gallieni peninsula:


Doigt de Sainte Anne is a volcanic outcrop on the eastern shore of the Gallieni peninsula.


Mounts Simoun and Diane:


Vallée des sables:


L'Arche des Kerguelen



Arche des Kerguelen is an old natural arch that has parcially collapsed.


It's located on the north extreme of Loranchet peninsula, northeast of Grande Terre, close to a sheltered bay called Port-Christmas. This was so named by Captain James Cook, who re-discovered the islands and who anchored there on Christmas Day, 1776.



This is also the place where Captain Cook coined the name "Desolation Islands" in reference to what he saw as a sterile landscape.



The Cook Ice Cap and its glaciars

Still in the northern area, there are lakes, glaciars and cascades around the small Cook Ice Cap:

Lake Bontemps

Pyramide Branca (White pyramid)

Glaciar Agassiz

Glaciar Ampère

Castor and Pollux cascade

Cats and Reindeer 
In an isolate South Indian island ?! Yes...


Cats were introduced in 1950 to stop mouse proliferation. Some survived and became wild. The problem is that they also feed on birds and endanger some colonies.

A cat among penguins

The cat population is now being studied, to understand how they resisted harsh and very cold environment, quite contrary to their natural habitat. They feed mainly on rabbits (also introduced, a plague to the cabbages) and birds.


Reindeer were introduced by the Norwegians. Today the reindeer of the Kerguelen islands number around 4000 individuals.


They have been able to survive due to their ability to extract sufficient nutrients from the islands' supply of lichens and mosses; they form the only such population in the southern hemisphere.

Finally, sheep, bighorn sheep, also brought by man to Île Longue (Long Island), a small island in Morbihan gulf covered with (planted) grass. They provide good meat to Port-aux-Français crewmen, so they take good care of them !

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But, of course, the penguin population reigns on these latitudes !