Trekking around Browning
So we woke up, then we had breakfast, then we talked, and then we walked.
So upon walking, we went straight up the hill, tripped on some rocks and then went all the way to the top, until we got to a section where we could see down into the valley below. Peering down into the valley, we could see all those little penguins down there across the big wide valley, but we could not see any seals, only hear them howling away in the distance. So we carried on forwards to the next seal spot where we could go to find them and upon getting there we found two decent sized Weddell seals sitting there just peacefully sleeping away in the sun-lit sky.
So after watching them for a bit, we decided to trek to the next seal spot. We trekked up the side of a hill and then down the side of a hill and then up the side of a hill and then down the side of a hill, until arriving at the big icy plain that just went out for ages. We walked all the way down it until the ice came down and ended with it, into the water, with nothing, not a single seal or penguin. The only thing there were some skuas constantly flying around our heads. Looking at the map we realised the next seal colony was not that far away and in fact we could hear the seals barking all through the valley.
So on we go trekking across the ice, one step after another, another step after one, across the ice plain and through the valley in between the mountains, on to the next big cliff. You can see over an area where all the seals are - the Weddells, the leopards and the elephants, even some more penguins. We could not even see all the seals they went so far deep and so wide up over the hill out of sight.
The Weddells all sat on the left all snoring until they had no breath left, the leopards were just a few next to them but down closer to the water and much harder to see hidden on the beach, and then the elephant seals a little further away, all grouped together snoring as loud as the their noses would let them.
One elephant seal wanted to be the King, swimming around in the bay all afternoon with him howling out for us all to hear him from kilometres away.
And so at last it became time for us to get on the move to get back to camp. Out we go behind the seal enclave and around the frozen river, then up the side of the hill until we got to a section where it is just more ice in the middle of two valleys. It goes along for a couple of kilometres and then it’s a big right turn and up over an ice hill to what will then seem like it is home after all of that.
Jedd Rutherford
Electrician - Casey Station
