Sometimes, when the weather is still, the noise is heard all around the place. Sometimes, with a storm raging, you can hardly discern it and all you hear is the storm. When walking towards to the weather station you may simply get lost. Then you climb over a huge snowdrift several meters high, eventually to end up closer to the diesel-electric power station, which will suddenly buzz in your right ear! You give a start from the surprise, but then you continue your journey and two meters away, you again can’t hear anything but the storm.

And the storm noise is so rich. You have actual howling, when the gusts are not strong but rather even, rhythmical. Sheer howling, as if coming from the chest, and annoying; like cats howling under the windows. The flagstaff is like a Jew’s harp. The whole area of the weather facility is whistling, especially the precipitation gauge in the middle – you really can hear music. The corks in the toilets are buzzing, the window panes jingling, and everything in the living quarters creaking in its tune, including the walls and the roof. Something will constantly rattle and bang and crackle on the roof. You have a feeling that the building is trying to turn itself inside out, from the impact it is getting.

When the wind from the Antarctic ice-cap is not that high, you have a chance to hear the wash, even though it’s only 100 meters from us to the shore.

You can always tell it’s the Uruguayans when you hear them riding by on a red vehicle of two wagons with caterpillars rattling.

When the Chileans came to us for the Chilean Children’s Celebration and got off their vehicles at the radio station quarters, the sound was marvelous – like at home in Moscow on a Sunday, with lots of children playing in the yard. I even thought could I hear dogs bark, how similar it all was.

And you have skua gulls cry, although nearly all of them have gone for the winter period. It’s been a long time since I saw a skua. Now there are only regular gulls.

The skuas are generally very bold. They will fly right above your head, not hesitating to pick up your cap, when you happen to exit the galley without proper attention to them. Sometimes they will stalk you from behind, unheard. When they flutter just over your head, the sound is great!

What else? We ring the bells on the hill, before and after the church service. Sometimes, glasses will jingle foully in the evening. And the snow – it has so many varied sounds. And icebergs – the ice crackles and crunches, depending on the size and shape. But this is another story.