McMurdo

One thing I didn't realize is that Pegasus airfield, which serves McMurdo and other nearby Antarctic bases run by other countries, is 30-45 minute drive from McMurdo base itself. So once we landed, they loaded as many people as they could into "Ivan the Terra Bus" and the rest of us piled into these old Deltas for the ride into MacTown.

I've never lived in a coal mining town, but I mostly hear people describe McMurdo as having a coal-mining town vibe, and that seems as good a description as any.

This picture was taken at about 1 a.m. There is no such thing as darkness in an Antarctic summer.

Everybody seems to have an opinion about McMurdo. Mine is that it was fun place to hang out for a few days. The scene at Gallagher's bar was more than I could handle the night that we arrived...

...but on our last night there, they had a trivia night at Gallagher's that was great fun. And the rest of the time, the town coffee shop was more up my alley.

Of course, the official and primary purpose of the three American bases on Antarctica is scientific research. It was very cool to check out Crary Lab in McMurdo, and see some of the sea life, geological, and other research being conducted there.

I also spent a lot of time in the "galley" (cafeteria) at McMurdo, where they have 24-hour pizza, space for orientations galore (I had to go to three during the five days I was there), and where, when our flight on to South Pole was repeatedly delayed, I started putting in some hours helping out the McMurdo galley staff so as to start training for my job in the Pole galley. (E.H.: recognize D.Z. in this pic? Thanks for connecting us!)

Probably my favorite thing I did at McMurdo was take a walk out to Hut Point, which is often a good place for seeing wildlife, such as the seal in the picture below...

...and has gorgeous views across the frozen bay (which will not be so frozen by the end of the summer! In the far distance, you can see the water that will creep closer and closer to McMurdo as summer temps that can get as high as 40F start to melt the ice cover)...

...and a nice view back on McMurdo itself. The mountainous setting of the base is definitely one of my favorite things about it.

And, thankfully, since there will be no wildlife in the even more extreme cold temps of the South Pole, I'm glad I got to see a skua bird--kind of the signature scavenger bird of the base. They say it's not safe to walk from the galley back to your housing with food in your hand, as the skuas will try to steal it. This one looks pretty well-fed.

It sounds like sometimes, at the end of their seasons at Pole, people don't even transit through McMurdo base on the way home--instead just getting off the plane from Pole at Pegasus and right onto another one to Christchurch. So I'm not sure when/if I'll get to visit McMurdo again, but I'm really glad I got the chance to check it out, and I'd welcome another few days to do more walking around the area and enjoy more card nights at the coffee house with the very great people I've met so far and am excited to be working with for the next several months.