A Dream or a Nightmare?

Emperor Penguin at Auster.

I woke this morning in a dream. I was flying across snow and ice, it was dark and the way ahead was lit by white light. When I looked down I saw a red quad bike, I was driving it. Then I felt the sensation of the ice beneath the wheels – up down up down as the frozen waves passed beneath me. Every now and then a white snow drift would appear and I would be tossed up and down violently as I crossed it. Then long stretches of deep corrugations in the snow (sastrugie) shook the quad with a constant shudder that required me to stand on the foot posts to absorb the shock in my legs. Was this a dream or a nightmare?

As suddenly as the shaking started it stopped.  I was now gliding across flat almost polished sea ice, ahead of me now was an everlasting pre-dawn glow. The sky grey, then mauve and orange to the horizon, at the brightest point was the epicentre of a spray of high cloud, streaming overhead and away behind me. The cloud lit from beneath, its structure a splash of red orange and pink.  I travelled on and on and on. It was a dream.

Everlasting pre-dawn glow.

Suddenly I was hanging on for all that it was worth to control a bucking, pitching machine that was now thrown around more violently than before. At the same time I became aware of my declining vision. At first the edges started to blur and then I no longer was able to focus on the surface in front of me. All around became a blur of white. Was it blowing snow- a blizzard, no it was the condensation of my breath gradually freezing on the visor of my helmet. The visor heating has failed, I slowed my speed. Darkness was still with me except for the distant glow of twilight.

I was in a frozen wilderness, the wind was strong, the temperature 17 below zero.  I became aware of a red light ahead of me travelling in the same direction. I followed the glow trying not to lose sight I didn’t want to stop for fear of losing them. After some time of travelling blind I had suddenly caught up. The light had stopped. As I pulled up alongside and lifted my visor there were 5 other quads. I gestured my problem.  In a short while we had swapped quads, plugged my helmet into the socket and suddenly I could see again.

6 Quads.

The other quad riders were dressed just like me, bright coloured goose down jackets and large heavy black glacier boots with thick mittens for the hands.We headed off together into that predawn glow.

I was now sitting on the snow with two strange animals approaching me. They walked upright, with a slight waddle on short legs. As they got closer I could see that they were Emperor Penguins and soon there were others also. They had come from a huddle of thousands of birds located in an amphitheatre formed by large blue icebergs. I checked my watch it said 12:00 on 11 June 2011. 

We had come to visit Auster Emperor Penguin Rookery - a day trip from Mawson that took 8 hours - 7 of riding on the quad.The day length was 58 min 27 sec so most of the trip was in darkness. When travelling on quads we carry navigation equipment, radio's our survival pack as well as fuel, and recovery equipment should a quad end up in the sea.

Auster Emperor Penguin Rookery