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| Primavera Base emerges from the fog... |
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| ...and retreats back into it. |
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| Brash ice and Zodiac in front of glacier. |
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| The Zodiac is working its way around the iceberg. |
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| How big is this iceberg looming out of the water? |
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| Zodiac for scale. |
With our route south blocked, it was time to turn around and head north again. Our first stop along the way was Cierva Cove. Named late in the day by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1960, it is named after Juan de la Cierva, the Spanish designer of the autogiro. The Argentinian navy had built a refuge on neighbouring Primavera Cape in 1954, so you might think they already had a name for the place. What happened with the name is indicative of how uncharted the Antarctic was until very recently. The Belgica had been past the area on its voyage and had recorded it as Baie Brialmont, after Lieutenant General Alexis-Henri Brialmont, a Belgian military engineer. However it eventually became clear that there are two coves there, not one, so now one bears the original name of Brialmont Cove (in English at least, although despite the original Belgian name it is not a bay) and the other was freshly named Cierva Cove. Phew! That was more detail than I was expecting to go into and I don't blame you if you skipped to the next paragraph and didn't get this far.
The Argentinian refuge was later extended into a collection of huts known as Primavera Base. We went past it by Zodiac, as can be seen in the first couple of photos. It isn't manned all the time and was empty at the time and not somewhere we could visit, so we had to spy on it from a distance. The weather was quite foggy, adding a sense of mystery to what is essentially a small congregation of buildings on a rocky hillside. As they drifted in and out of visibility I wondered, not for the first time, what it would be like to work in a place like that.
There are many bases representing many nations in Antarctica. On the peninsula, the nations present reduces due to territorial claims. It's a very complex diplomatic balancing act, but broadly speaking the Antarctic Treaty freezes claims as they were in 1959. In practice there have been some further claims but for the most part everyone rubs along, including, perhaps remarkably, the UK and Argentina. Graham Land, the region of the peninsula I visited, is claimed by Argentina, Chile and the UK, and so those are the nations which have bases there. Primavera is the only base in the region of the peninsula I visited. The South Shetlands, which we will get to in lieu of crossing the Antarctic Circle, is a different matter.
There is of course more to the human story on the peninsula than bases. You've already seen the refuge huts at Damoy Point, and structures of this scale are all over the place. In the region we travelled around, these are the ones I found noted on a British Antarctic Survey map:
- 2 cairns with plaques on Peterman Island and at Port Charcot.
- 5 UK bases and shelters - Wordie House, Port Lockroy, Damoy Hut, Paradise Harbour, Waterboat Point (ruins.)
- 1 UK lighthouse on Lambda Island.
- 2 Argentinean - Almirante Brown, Melchior.
- 2 Chilean - Yelcho, Gabriel Gonzalez Videla.
- 1 Ukrainian - Verdansky.
We didn't go anywhere near some of those but they were in the vicinity in what is a substantially unpopulated part of the world. Our route did take us past the cairns, Port Lockroy and Damoy however.
The most famous of these is Port Lockroy. Now known for being the world's most southerly post office, it has an interesting history. The bay itself was named by Charcot after Edouard Lockroy, a French politician who had helped fund his expedition. It became a whaling station, but with the collapse of the whaling industry all was quiet again until World War Two. Britain, who you might think already had their hands full with matters nearer home, wished to consolidate their claim on the Falklands Independent Territories. Chile and Argentina had made counterclaims during the war and Britain wanted to ensure that wouldn't be a problem in the future. Of course that all worked out perfectly with no later complications whatsoever.
The British presence involved establishing a series of permanent bases in the territories, with the one in Port Lockroy being the main base, designated base A. These were used for scientific research, and the one at Port Lockroy remained in operation until 1962.
In 1996 renovation of the abandoned base began, and in 2006 management of the place was assumed by the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust. It was at this point that it became a post office and museum with gift shop, and with that a popular stop for tourist ships. Unfortunately for us, because of concerns over bird flu in the region they weren't accepting any visitors when we were there. Our ship went past it from some distance and I was only able to see it through the 30X zoom of my Lumix camera. I was a little saddened by this as visiting the post office there was higher up my wishlist than crossing the Antarctic Circle, but I knew before going that landings aren't guaranteed, so that's the way it goes.
Being unable to visit the post office didn't mean we lost out on the chance to send a postcard from there however. Jacqui, who ran the ship's gift shop, promised to post any postcards given to her next season. This would be from Port Lockroy if it was open then, or failing that Port Stanley in the Falklands. When I first wrote this post it still hadn't arrived, but it was eventually delivered after almost a year, postmarked Port Lockroy. So thank you Jacqui, the effort is appreciated!
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