Today was full of blizzard and snow drift, very atmospheric but still not a good day to trek to our lake to do fieldwork. Instead Steve and I braved the elements to have a look at the lakes within the Jubany base area. At one point I thought I was going to be blown away the wind was so strong it almost made it difficult to breathe. But once we were in the shelter behind some moraines it was really atmospheric, the snow drift blowing frantically across the hills and glacier, and blustering around like smoke at the top of tres hermanos in the distance.

We walked back along the beach and were delighted to see some Gentoo penguins so spent some time penguin watching and collecting samples (such excitement at finding fresh Gentooo-pooo!). The things we do for science, hey. Next stop was the lab for some water filtering, and more joy at finding a vacuum pump to speed things up, it’s cold in the lab you have to keep wrapped up and hope you don’t get snowed in, reporting when you are going and when you will be back, radio to hand when working alone.

Saturday is pizza and beer night,- goodness how the last week has flown by – followed by dancing. But the dancing is not optional when the base doctor is around – she kept grabbing people and dragging them onto the dance floor, and she was not someone to disobey. Saturday night dancing is a big thing here at Jubany, apparently people from the Korean base round the next bay also sometimes come here to party. And because we are still early in the summer season it is even more exciting and new as there have not been many Saturdays in the season yet. In the winter apparently since there are no women here, dancing is substituted with playing cards. And apparently cards isn’t quite as much fun.