Richard Pierce

Richard Pierce – author, poet, painter

Writing

From my Antarctic Diary – entry dated 6th January 2008

13:20
Sitting on Cape Evans shore about 500 m northeast of Hut. The other two have gone on to the Hut. I can still hear their voices. Sounds travel far here. On the way here (where the Greenpeace camp was years ago), got dive-bombed by skuas. I can see across to an ice cave in the Barne Glacier.

13:35
Back at Hut. Look in Ponting’s darkroom, and find a painting (Wilson?) Ross Island from Cape Roberts Granite Habour. It’s not signed or dated. Also find crucifix-shaped hole down by the floor in the darkroom. Did Spencer-Smith put it there when he used the darkroom as a chapel? Was there any reference to it in his diary? There is so much stuff in the darkroom. WE also find some cocaine for the relief of snow blindness in the medical supplies.

2 years, good friend on Trygve Gran’s bunk in red paint, dated 19th January 1913.

15:25
Back at camp site for lunch. Cup of tea for me. Still amazed at how much there is in the Hut. The sun’s shining, but the weather looks like it’s closing in.

16:30
Back to hut. Help dig out about 3 metres of trench on eastern side of Hut. That takes about 2 hours.

23:00
Sitting in my smoker’s place, sun still half-out. Snow forecast for tomorrow.

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