DDW Challenge; rimulose - small chinks or fissures

I spent the Summer of 1977 on the Vatnajokull glacier in South East Iceland, as part of a university expedition.

As well as working on various experiments, my role was to provide a photographic record of our work for the expedition sponsors. I also recorded the day-to-day life of 7 smelly men and 1 woman (who might not have had an odour problem) living in one tent for 3 months, some 15 miles away from the nearest drinking water. And don’t ask about toilet facilities.

We travelled to Iceland by ferry from Scrabster in Northern Scotland, by way of the Faroe Islands. The ferry dropped us off in the Faroes and sailed on to Bergen to collect more passengers. About three days later the ferry would return to collect us and complete the journey Northwards.

We took advantage of the stop-over to explore this extraordinary place stuck out in the North Atlantic. On one of the remoter islands we came across an abandoned whaling station, where I found this rimulose object.

It’s about 10”/25cm long and organic in origin. We assumed, given the location, that it’s a piece of whale bone, but I’m not sure. I’ve given it a coat of varnish to stop the surface crumbling and it now sits on my bookshelf, defying Anniemay (who has a thing about things that crumble. Other than puddings).

I took 10 rolls of Kodachrome 64 and 4 rolls of Ilford FP4 with me for that trip. I used 5 rolls of the Kodachrome in those 3 days on the Faroes, leaving me seriously short for the rest of the summer. Oh for digital.