Dramatis persona*

helenhead Helen Chick

I've always wanted a bumper sticker that said "I'm a female, LDS/Mormon, Scout leading, geocaching, piano-playing, bicycling, mathematics educator with a PhD in maths ... and I VOTE"!

I think this makes me a minority group of cardinality 1!

* Since there's only one of me and "personae" is plural (I think), I've gone with dramatis persona.
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BT – Dorian Bay and Damoy Hut

Over lunch we motored northward to Wiencke Island, where we came ashore at Dorian Bay (S 64°49′ W 63°30′), just below the two relatively small huts — one Argentinian, the other British — perched on the hillside. The British one is no longer used but is a designated historic site; the Argentinian refuge is older and was only used as a short term or emergency shelter (a part of me wonders if they were both occupied during the Falklands/Malvinas conflict; such a scenario may have been a little awkward).

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Many of us headed up the snowy hill on an extended snow shoe hike, which gave us extensive views across to the much larger Anvers Island, some 3km away.

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At the top of the ridge line — the area around which was used by the British in the 1970s-1990s as an airstrip for resupplying a station further to the south — we had a good view into the channel and the next bay where, in addition to a Russian flagged cruise ship, there was a small yacht. I hate to think what a crossing of the Drake Passage must be like in such a vessel.

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We continued down the ridge-line towards the point to complete a large circuit route. The rounded slope of the snow-covered hill on which we were snow-shoeing was a contrast to the crags of the mountains behind.

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It had to be done at some point, and so here it is: The picture of Dorian Bay.

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While the majority of people were snow-shoeing, one of the mountaineering guides took someone up a nice little nearby ice-cliff (you might just be able to match the photo below with the triangular ice-wall above a gentler snowy slope in the centre of the photo above; there are two pixel-sized black specks at the boundary between the wall and the slope).

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Having completed the circuit we wandered around the shore, enjoying the views, and finding yet another colony of cute Gentoo penguins.

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The moody sky of the morning continued into the afternoon creating some interesting cloud and light effects, and the fact that the walking route followed the snowy ridge-line allowed for some nice shots of distant hikers against the sky.

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The British structure is Damoy Hut and it is possible to go inside, where some relics from its work in the 1970s can still be seen.

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It was late in the afternoon when we returned to Plancius and after dinner I enjoyed a view from the deck and completely failed, yet again, to get a really good shot of penguins leaping out of the water.

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