Blizzard at Brookes Hut

Friday afternoon saw Matt, Tony, Annette and myself head out to Brookes Hut for the weekend. The big plan was to shoot straight across to Brookes and settle in for two nights to do absolutely nothing. The trip in the Hagg was to take no longer than half an hour. How wrong we were.

I was driving and noticed a smell of fuel. As I have had not much experience with driving the Haggs I thought I might have left the choke open, only there wasn't one. We pulled up and Matt got out to have a look, coming back with the report that one of the tanks was over full and the other was running right down. We called in to Davis to let them know we were having some problems and started to try and hunt the problem down. Both breather vents appeared to be open, but it seemed the return line on one of the tanks wasn't working. After getting some advice over the radio from the diesos we tried to transfer fuel from tank two to tank one but when this didn't help the situation we knew for sure it was a problem with the return line. We tried for an hour or so to locate the blockage but without success. The decision was made to call in the cavalry, and Glen H and Jason were soon on their way.

Matt trying to work out a solution to our problem

While we waited for help we unloaded our Hagg in readiness to swap over Haggs with Glen and Jason, who would return to Davis with our sub-optimal, but still drivable, vehicle. Once that was done all we could do was wait. It didn't take them long to get to us and after about 20 minutes we were on our way again (in a blue Hagg this time) and our rescuers returned to Davis.

Annette and Tony killing time

Me looking concerned at our very dangerous and life-threatening situation

"I'll swap you our red Hagg for your blue one"

L-R: Jason, Tony, Matt, Glen and Annette

We arrived at Brookes at 1740, after leaving Davis at 1445. Not bad for a half hour trip. We unloaded and got into the hut, really ready now to begin our weekend of doing nothing. How wrong I was. The heater in the bedroom wouldn't stay alight. So I pulled it apart trying to get the thing to work properly. After making a few adjustments here and there, and after a few choice words were said, it was operational. Not ideal, but operational nonetheless. Now it was really time to settle in to do nothing.

We awoke on Saturday morning to the first blizzard of the season. The maximum wind gust was about 75 knots (140km/h), but was averaging about 60 knots (115km/h). Visibility was horrible, at times less than 10 meters. The Hagg was parked about 20 meters away in clear sight of the windows, but at times it was invisible. It was really amazing - bottles were rattling, the hut was shaking and we were as snug as bugs in a rug in our hut. Until it was time to go to the toilet (or in Tony's case, have a smoke). After a few interesting trips to the loo (including one where I was blown off the end of the deck) it was decided we should make things easier by bringing the pee drum to us, leaving it in the cold porch. After that three of us basically didn't leave the hut for 24 hours. Tony still had to go outside for a smoke the silly bugger. We finally found the time to do absolutely nothing. Books were read, games were played (including chess, where I beat Annette without losing a piece. I'm still gloating about that one!) and much crap was spoken. In all it was a really good day.

Sunday morning and the wind was still blowing a bit, making us wonder if we were to be blizzed in for another day, but unfortunately it wasn't to be. Around midday the wind swing around and dropped right off meaning it was time to start thinking about going home. The Hagg had to be dug out as the snow had built up all around it, and it also had to be plugged into a generator for an hour to warm the block sufficiently to get it to start. Loading it wasn't terribly easy as some of the area was covered in snow up to thigh deep. We got everything together and set off for home.

Still partially buried. At this point the front windscreen had been cleared. The snow was used to make a snowman right in front, which died in suspicious circumstances not long after the Hagg was started. I swear, I thought I was in reverse...

When we arrived we saw how much snow was dumped on Davis. Jason and Glen H (busy little beavers that they are) were already using the loaders to clear roads and uncover vehicles. A lot of the work had already been done by the time we got back, but we did help get one of the utes uncovered. Below is a picture of it with it's tray full of snow, even after the sides and tailgate have been dropped.

In all, quite an interesting weekend for everyone.