South Georgia Island!!!

Hello Again,

On Tuesday, January 9^th – the next morning, we were in the South Ocean. In fact, we were in sort of rough water all night after my birthday. Well, at least John and I thought it was rough. We were, for the first time, out in the open ocean and, as I heard later – some notoriously rough water that, on this day, wasn’t really very rough!!! I guess it’s all relative. It was a sea day…..but do not think those are lazy days. The lectures are so good on this ship that it’s hard to miss any of them!

We ate lunch inside, but we went up to the Grill to check it out.  The weather was so beautiful that we made a reservation for dinner there that night…..but more of that later!

We are so amazingly lucky to have such great speakers – we go to these lectures that each last an hour…..and then each night there is a recap and preview of the next day that is for forty-five minutes before dinner. But it is NOT boring……plus there is bar service during all of them…..but if you are smart not too much alcohol until just before dinner. (I did have my first espresso martini during an afternoon lecture – chased with a diet coke!!!)

There is one lecturer in particular that I’d like to mention; his name is Peter Harrison. In the 1980’s he published his first book, Seabirds of the World. At that time, there only existed bird guides to particular destinations, as in North American Birds…..or birds of Europe. He was the first person to write a book about all of the seabirds of the world. Since that time there have been others to follow him. We also learned about the time he and another guide helped a then-elderly Jimmy Stewart up a mountain so that the actor could watch a particular species of albatross. I don’t know from personal experience, but I think he is quite famous. Anyway, he is quite funny and has great stories and lots and lots of knowledge to share.

This is his 188th trip to Antarctica and his next to last.  In addition, he said that if he had seven days to live, he would spend five of them on South Georgia Island…..and, when asked what he would do with the other two days — he would respond “Get there!”

So that evening we saw that it had become cloudy and overcast, but we decided that we should “tough it out” since there would probably not be another opportunity.  They do provide blankets.  After we zoomed through our blue cheese salads and hot dogs (our choice because quick), I told John he owed me an Irish coffee in the lounge — we were so cold because it was very damp!!!  You can’t tell in the pictures but we are wrapped up below in blankets.

We birded from the aft of the ship the next morning — lots of black-browed albatross following us and I did see another species, but couldn’t catch him in flight.

We passed an amazing rock outcrop in the middle of the day – Shag Rocks. Apparently, we were only seeing the top of a mountain range.

The rest of the day was filled with lectures preparing us for our next “big event” — three days around South Georgia Island.

Our first day we stopped at three different places.  At Salisbury Plain, most people walked up the mountain; I, on the other hand, was given a box (normally a box to step on to get in or out of the zodiac) a little way up the beach and I was very happy watching the wildlife — the seals and the King Penguins!  The first pictures are of the Elephant Seals — not beautiful creatures but incredibly large — this is a female.  Southern elephant seals are enormous—the largest of all seals. Males can be over 20 feet long and weigh up to 8,800 pounds or more. A species with extreme sexual dimorphism, males are typically five to six times larger than the females, who weigh 880–2,000 pounds.

There was an abundance of adorable fur seals and pups!

Also that day we some the amazing King Penguins — so far, everyone’s favorite!

It was just penguins everywhere for as far as you could see!!!!  What a sight!

After lunch we landed at Fortuna Bay — more great pictures there:

And a reward of a rainbow back on the ship:

Day Two on South Georgia began with a stop at Stromness. It is most famous as the place where Ernest Shackleton arrived after a 36-hour hike across South Georgia in a successful attempt to save his men stranded on Elephant Island. More on that later.  Some of our shipmates made part of this hike. We opted for the beach and more wonderful pictures. On the beach is an abandoned whaling station that you can see, but clearly marked to not get closer than a certain point. There is loose asbestos debris that could fly around if a wind gust occurred.

We enjoyed looking at more wildlife before we returned to the ship. It was such an amazingly beautiful and warm day – 65 degrees and brightly sunny.

The pups loved playing on the boot cleaning rack above — attracted by the red color!

In the afternoon we disembarked at Grytviken which was established in 1904 as another whaling outpost with a church and, now, a museum.……but the most interesting thing is that it is the burial sight of Ernest Shackleton. The cemetery was filled with all the passengers and crew from the ship and Peter Harrison gave a toast at Shackleton’s grave which was quite beautiful. We joined Peter in the toast with a shot of Irish Whiskey, eschewing the champagne.

Shackleton was an early English explorer, along with Amundsen and Scott, trying to be the first to reach the South Pole. Shackleton was, at one point in time, the explorer who got closest to reaching the South Pole (ahead of Amundsen and Scott), but determined if he pushed forward he would not have sufficient food to make the return trip. He opted to save his men and did not go forward. On the return he was iced in at Elephant Island; it took himself and 5 other men pushing a 24 foot boat over ice, then sailing 800 miles through rough seas (leaving 22 men on Elephant Island promising to return). After weeks at sea as they reached South Georgia Island; they braved a hurricane for 5 days huddled under their inverted boat; and determined they had landed on the wrong shore of South Georgia Island.  Then Shackleton and 2 of the other 5 hiked 36-hours nonstop across the mountains to the whaling outpost on the opposite shore of South Georgia Island. There he organized a rescue mission, picked up the 3 men left on the opposite shore, and on his fourth try successfully returned to Elephant Island and saved all remaining 22 members of his crew. Peter Harrison said his men affectionately referred to him as “the Boss.”

The museum was interesting – full of artifacts from the ages. But what I enjoyed the most was the “touch me” section; I petted a seal coat (nice) and a King Penguin (interesting); I felt a flipper…..you get the idea. You might get somewhat close to a penguin, but definitely not to a seal, whether it’s a fur seal or an elephant seal. We saw pictures of vicious bites and even the big guys can move quickly!!

We passed some beautiful scenery on our way to our next stop:

 

On our last day at South Georgia Island, we began the day at Cooper Bay. There was a 6:00 a.m. group who climbed a steep hill to get up close and personal with our next thrilling sighting – the very adorable Macaroni Penguins. They look a lot like to Rock Hopper Penguins, but have much longer yellow fringe- the David Bowie of the Penguin world. We opted for the 8:30 a.m. departure on a zodiac cruise up close to their nesting sight on the island. Other than the difficultly of getting a still photo in a rocking vessel, it was a great trip!

A Macaroni Penguin and a Snowy Petrel:

Sitting on the nests and with chicks:

 

The kelp looks and feels like plastic — but slippery……very strange stuff:

I really liked watching this couple.  They were clearly a pair — he fell over on her into the water and afterward, he helped her back on the rock and patted her butt!!!  An awwww moment!

After an early lunch, we were back out on the beach – this time at Gold Harbour. But the bad news now – rain! On the beach were scattered at least 200 elephant seals and lots and lots of King Penguins. As massive as the Elephant Seals appeared to us, they are half the size of full grown Elephant Seals- the grown ones go to sea in November of each year.

Below is a young King Penguin and the one next is him molting to become his beautiful adult self:

John opted for a walk with Peter Harrison; the man has so much knowledge to share and I wandered around closer and watched these big creatures. I am hoping to include video of them lumbering around!

This is the end of a fantastic wildlife experience.  South Georgia truly is an amazing sight; we loved it all.  Just as we were starting to leave Gold Harbour, the skies lifted slightly and we were off.

We have two sea days of travel until we reach until we reach Elephant Island of the South Shetland Islands, then Antarctica…….stay tuned!

Beth

p.s.  I began vastly reducing the size of the pictures so that I could get them to load — I hope they look okay for you……just don’t try to print — the quality will be awful 🙂