Lesser spotted volcanoes in eSouth Africa
Day 1,266, 14:30
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Published in South Africa 
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by
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by Luc Praetor
Marion Island is one of the most desolate places that eSouth Africa has ever annexed. A secret, no doubt, that other eCountries have missed while they've been vigourously scampering to attain eLand. Meanwhile, eSouth Africa has been encouraging the growth of countries off eAdmin radar (eLesotho, eBotswana, ePigsPeakCasino, eNamibia). This account, a humourous newsletter sent by a crew member on his/her scientific tour of Marion Island.
How not to get bored at Marion Island
You can always go singing in the rain if you're stupid enough, stare through the window to see how many snowflakes you can count in a minute or revert back to the more accepted method of passing the time by watching the same video for the third time which should not be a problem because last night you had to listen to the same song twenty times as dished up by our dj, the one and only DJ-Onesong.
Good advice was taken from my old friend Evil Knievel at SANAE base who suggested that I bring along a multiple of coloured and scented soaps. That at least helps you not to get bored in the shower. Or you can alternate by taking a bath every other day and then you can also vary the songs you sing to go with the colour of the soap. "That is Evil Knievel... not Evil Knievel... as in... Demonic Kneeskin...." ~ Afrikaans Editor
One thing good about your morning cup of coffee... you can always have another one.
Your choice and compilation of breakfast cereals will off course indicate your creative mood for the day and with a bit of ingenuity could keep you busy for half an hour or so.
Ah! Thank heavens for skivvies and your daily work. That will sure help you over the boredom blues for a while.
After work you you must take a nap, even after trying to read the article in the magazine you had already read backwards yesterday, while lying with your head to the other side of the bed so you can later dream the Agulhas is on its way home as the room is rocking and rolling in the wind.
At night you can phone home. It would help a lot if you can do your best to pick up a fight over the phone one day and try to resolve it the next, that is a sure way to keep your mind occupied for a while.
Get hold of a tape measure and a pen so that you can measure and record the circumference of your tummy before and after dinner. It will not only pass time but also give you something new to worry about. Using the bathroom scale every other day can alternate this.
And if you're really bored... risk your life.
"Only read the next part if you have the explorer's stomach." ~ Editor
Boredom might eventually succeed in driving you out of base in the middle of a winter snowstorm for your first attempt at a Round Island Hike.
Firstly you pick a guide who you least suspect will let you get lost on the island. Yes! Believe me you can very easily get lost and might even lose your life as a result.
Now just for a little bit of extra fun you pack your rucksack with a radio and tools which together with your sleeping bag and all the necessary refreshments and headache pills will give you a load of 30kg to weigh you down a bit so that you don't perhaps out-walk the guide. Who has only done about thirty round island trips so far.
Full of confidence and vitamin tablets you set off on the first leg of the trip via Repettos Hut to Cape Davis which have you a bit worried because the other day during summer you could not even reach Repettos itself without almost dying of exhaustion.
After about an hour of sweating heavily in your gumboots and constantly falling up to the waist into maaiers, you stop to take a five minute break... but after three minutes your toes turn into ice blocks and you decide to rather keep going than to succumb to hypothermia.
Reaching Repettos hut after about three more gruelling hours, you wish that you could rather stay the night than to continue the hike for another one and a half hours to get to Cape Davis.
Between Cape Davis and Mixed Pickle lies Azorellakop which definitely helps you get rid of a few litres of sweat while you stumble upward on snow covered rock and Blechnum into an icy headwind which more than often blows you back a few paces.
On the third day you might be lucky enough to get good weather "By Marion standards" ~ Editor , with the sun breaking through for a few minutes at a time and then you see it... a gathering of feeding petrels in the sea close to the hut, indicating that Orca has made a kill. Time to get the camera out to capture one of natures most beautiful mammals. The killer whale.
Now off to Swartkops via Kampkoppie and Kaalkoppie with the camera ready for capturing the two craters that erupted in 1980. And then over green cotula plains where swarms of petrels roam at the bottom of the picturesque mountain range.
Getting up the next day you are left feeling somewhat isolated knowing that you are on the far side of the Island but also with a bit of hope because you made it halfway around and there is still hope that you might get back to base some day and your cabin with electric heaters, cooked meals, t-bone steaks and entertainment facilities suddenly feels like home to you. Now for the longest trek due to the fact that Rooks cabin that was supposed to be halfway to Greyheaded was blown away a few years back.
After seven hours of walk drenched by rain and hammering ice pellets you finally reach the hut for another night of canned food and drying your clothes over the gas stove while trying to kill the pain in your tired body with what is still left of the special medicine that you worked so hard carrying all the way around.
Planning to head straight back to base on day five soon changes to rather aim for Kildalkey hut after studying the heavy snow on Karookop, a name that makes many an old Islander shiver. Step by step up the hill in snow and howling winds make you wonder once more whether you have not over estimated your hiking skills to the extent that you will never see friends or family again.
Reaching for your water bottle only to find the contents frozen up in the minus four temperature as indicated by a hiking thermometer (with a wind-chill factor of –27 as later stated by the islands weather office). No rest breaks. If you stop you will most certainly die because you now must rely on your own internal heating system fuelled only by the previous night's pasta meal and the chocolates still left in your pocket.
Involuntarily you think of what will happen to you in the event of breaking a leg on the slippery surfaces.
Six hours of this with kneecaps that refuses to take any more punishment gets you to Kildalkey, the last hut. Which leaves you with a feeling of closeness to home.
Time to start celebrating with more medicine that was stowed away on a previous visit.
This proves to be not such a great idea as you head back to base the following day in the drenching rain over the Soft Plume River, Kergeulen Rise, past Fred's Hill, Tom, Dick and Harry and still many a maaier to wade into.
And the moral of this story?
No need to get bored on Marion - Take a hike.
"You made it, buddy... you survived this article!" ~ Editor
My respects to the men and women who dare the cold and unfriendly weather of Marion Island, just to be able to call it a scientific outpost. Wish I could go there some day, not until I'm vetted as science-worthy
~ Another article consumed for eRepublik use
How not to get bored at Marion Island
You can always go singing in the rain if you're stupid enough, stare through the window to see how many snowflakes you can count in a minute or revert back to the more accepted method of passing the time by watching the same video for the third time which should not be a problem because last night you had to listen to the same song twenty times as dished up by our dj, the one and only DJ-Onesong.
Good advice was taken from my old friend Evil Knievel at SANAE base who suggested that I bring along a multiple of coloured and scented soaps. That at least helps you not to get bored in the shower. Or you can alternate by taking a bath every other day and then you can also vary the songs you sing to go with the colour of the soap. "That is Evil Knievel... not Evil Knievel... as in... Demonic Kneeskin...." ~ Afrikaans Editor
One thing good about your morning cup of coffee... you can always have another one.
Your choice and compilation of breakfast cereals will off course indicate your creative mood for the day and with a bit of ingenuity could keep you busy for half an hour or so.
Ah! Thank heavens for skivvies and your daily work. That will sure help you over the boredom blues for a while.
After work you you must take a nap, even after trying to read the article in the magazine you had already read backwards yesterday, while lying with your head to the other side of the bed so you can later dream the Agulhas is on its way home as the room is rocking and rolling in the wind.
At night you can phone home. It would help a lot if you can do your best to pick up a fight over the phone one day and try to resolve it the next, that is a sure way to keep your mind occupied for a while.
Get hold of a tape measure and a pen so that you can measure and record the circumference of your tummy before and after dinner. It will not only pass time but also give you something new to worry about. Using the bathroom scale every other day can alternate this.
And if you're really bored... risk your life.
"Only read the next part if you have the explorer's stomach." ~ Editor
Boredom might eventually succeed in driving you out of base in the middle of a winter snowstorm for your first attempt at a Round Island Hike.
Firstly you pick a guide who you least suspect will let you get lost on the island. Yes! Believe me you can very easily get lost and might even lose your life as a result.
Now just for a little bit of extra fun you pack your rucksack with a radio and tools which together with your sleeping bag and all the necessary refreshments and headache pills will give you a load of 30kg to weigh you down a bit so that you don't perhaps out-walk the guide. Who has only done about thirty round island trips so far.
Full of confidence and vitamin tablets you set off on the first leg of the trip via Repettos Hut to Cape Davis which have you a bit worried because the other day during summer you could not even reach Repettos itself without almost dying of exhaustion.
After about an hour of sweating heavily in your gumboots and constantly falling up to the waist into maaiers, you stop to take a five minute break... but after three minutes your toes turn into ice blocks and you decide to rather keep going than to succumb to hypothermia.
Reaching Repettos hut after about three more gruelling hours, you wish that you could rather stay the night than to continue the hike for another one and a half hours to get to Cape Davis.
Between Cape Davis and Mixed Pickle lies Azorellakop which definitely helps you get rid of a few litres of sweat while you stumble upward on snow covered rock and Blechnum into an icy headwind which more than often blows you back a few paces.
On the third day you might be lucky enough to get good weather "By Marion standards" ~ Editor , with the sun breaking through for a few minutes at a time and then you see it... a gathering of feeding petrels in the sea close to the hut, indicating that Orca has made a kill. Time to get the camera out to capture one of natures most beautiful mammals. The killer whale.
Now off to Swartkops via Kampkoppie and Kaalkoppie with the camera ready for capturing the two craters that erupted in 1980. And then over green cotula plains where swarms of petrels roam at the bottom of the picturesque mountain range.
Getting up the next day you are left feeling somewhat isolated knowing that you are on the far side of the Island but also with a bit of hope because you made it halfway around and there is still hope that you might get back to base some day and your cabin with electric heaters, cooked meals, t-bone steaks and entertainment facilities suddenly feels like home to you. Now for the longest trek due to the fact that Rooks cabin that was supposed to be halfway to Greyheaded was blown away a few years back.
After seven hours of walk drenched by rain and hammering ice pellets you finally reach the hut for another night of canned food and drying your clothes over the gas stove while trying to kill the pain in your tired body with what is still left of the special medicine that you worked so hard carrying all the way around.
Planning to head straight back to base on day five soon changes to rather aim for Kildalkey hut after studying the heavy snow on Karookop, a name that makes many an old Islander shiver. Step by step up the hill in snow and howling winds make you wonder once more whether you have not over estimated your hiking skills to the extent that you will never see friends or family again.
Reaching for your water bottle only to find the contents frozen up in the minus four temperature as indicated by a hiking thermometer (with a wind-chill factor of –27 as later stated by the islands weather office). No rest breaks. If you stop you will most certainly die because you now must rely on your own internal heating system fuelled only by the previous night's pasta meal and the chocolates still left in your pocket.
Involuntarily you think of what will happen to you in the event of breaking a leg on the slippery surfaces.
Six hours of this with kneecaps that refuses to take any more punishment gets you to Kildalkey, the last hut. Which leaves you with a feeling of closeness to home.
Time to start celebrating with more medicine that was stowed away on a previous visit.
This proves to be not such a great idea as you head back to base the following day in the drenching rain over the Soft Plume River, Kergeulen Rise, past Fred's Hill, Tom, Dick and Harry and still many a maaier to wade into.
And the moral of this story?
No need to get bored on Marion - Take a hike.
"You made it, buddy... you survived this article!" ~ Editor
My respects to the men and women who dare the cold and unfriendly weather of Marion Island, just to be able to call it a scientific outpost. Wish I could go there some day, not until I'm vetted as science-worthy
😁.
~ Another article consumed for eRepublik use
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Just about recovered from Mother's Day (I'm in flowers, remember?). Had to post something really arbitrary to reflect the desolate and morbid place I've been frequenting... my boss calls it my office space. I call it hell.
Awesome Article Luc, Inspiring my imagination as always!!!!
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