Roberts Island consists of a bare landscape, glaze like glass, with some enormous craters. There are just a few trees on the island. The valleys are covered with thin yellow grass ans especially stones. It is a place where you can't see the difference between back- and foreground. Here my frame of reference does not work, the top of the 476 metre mountain on Roberts Island is comparable with a height of 3000 metre in Europe.

The wind reaches gale forces in a continual crescendo. He is my worst enemy. Sometime he forces me to stay inside for weeks and he is inpredictable.

I go for a walk in the icy river. My bare feet start to glow the moment they contact the cold water, my body is totaly benumbed. To encourage myself I try to imagine Rallier spending the nights in the open air. He shivered with cold, but was never complaining.

I think of John Nunn and his compaignons. They wandered D‚solation Island for two years. They ran along the coast of the archipel to stay warm. It took two years before they were rescued. And I remember Peau who pointed out that the climate here is beneficial for your health and causes a big appetite.
robert