DIY Geoblogy
This is Chapter 3 of my HB16 film, which I can post here as there are no ‘people permissions’ I need to get. Interestingly, as I was putting this chapter together, I realised I had no actual movie footage of rocks from the trip. I guess because they don’t move it never occurred to me to film them! Enjoy! https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz-picDNk4ZDLTN4bFAtNS1ScEE/view?usp=sharing
Homeward Bound 2016 was for me, quite literally, the trip of a lifetime. It was filled with ocean, snow, ice and the incredible beauty and rawness of nature aboard our real ‘Mother Ship’ – the Earth. As a geologist having worked in thermal coal for the last fourteen years, I climbed on-board the M.V. Ushuaia on the 2nd December with a huge dose of imposter syndrome, fearing I may be vilified and ostracised by this group of 75+ female climate change activists. The knowledge that a film crew would be present conjured images of ‘Survivor Antarctica’ and the potential for me being voted off the boat even before we’d crossed the Drake Passage. Fortunately, however, I found my companions were all incredibly intelligent, engaging, thoughtful and inclusive. Although occasionally judgemental of the content of the HB program and how it was being run, I was surprised by the other participant’s…
Trilobites are extinct arthropods… distant relatives of modern lobsters, horseshoe crabs and spiders. They lived from the Lower Cambrian Period (521 million years ago) to the end of the Permian (240 million years ago). Their emergence and extinction bookend the Paleozoic Age. https://research.amnh.org/paleontology/trilobite-website/twenty-trilobite-fast-facts. Teddy was my ‘rock’ throughout the trip, always there for me in a (large) pocket of my jacket or sleeping in my backpack. He was made for me especially for the trip by my Mum, Beth Lucas. Although mistaken for a whale shark and horseshoe crab (understandably) amongst other things, he also served many new friends on-board the M.V. Ushuaia as a pillow, flying object/ball for getting someone’s attention, or simply as a placebo pet for a therapeutic pat. Teddy is pictured here on his first continental landing at Brown Bluff* on Day #7 – 8th December, 2016. *Lat: 63° 30’ S, Long: 56° 52’ W.
After “patching up” with scopolamine imported from New Zealand some months prior to the trip, I forced myself onto the boat. And yes, I was shaking like a leaf. Went and found room 213 with room mate Meredith. Single beds either side of the cabin and our own en-suite, wow, pretty flash! We reached agreement that the heater in the room should stay off given the stuffy environment on-board. Two travel calms popped before we headed out into the Beagle Channel. Nerves starting to recede. Rules and inductions in the main lounge of the boat, which apparently is actually a ship, although I still insist that ships “wreck” and boats “float” so I shall continue to refer to the vessel as the latter. The life boat drill was mandatory, obviously, and we got to sit inside one to make us feel really hopeful that we would never have to use them. Lots of photos…