South Georgia Island is a crescent-shaped island with no permanent inhabitants, about 100 miles long and 24 miles wide. It is 900 miles from Stanley in the Falklands.  It is an overseas British territory and the governor for the Falklands is also responsible for South Georgia. The island has high snow capped mountains in the interior the highest being 9,000 feet high.  Then there are glaciers that spill right into the sea. Since the waters around the island are abundant with fish and krill, a huge population of sea birds, penguins, and sea animals live on the island. We spent 4 days cruising the east side of the island as it was the calmest.  We landed by zodiac off the ship twice each day.  Thanks to our good weather, almost hot weather, we were able to make all of our proposed landing.  This is a photo of our first, Prion Island. It is quite a thrill to land on the surf, walk up to the beach and have it crowded with fur seals and penguins. We tried to be careful and not crowd them, but it was very hard, there were so many. We hiked up the hill from the beach t view the Wandering Albatross nests.  We actually found one bird on its egg, sleeping. These are the world’s largest Albatrosses and often spend 5-7 years at sea and only come to land to have their young.

We also cruised by zodiac to get closer to the animals in the water and to some of the sea bird nests.

Fortuna Bay was a beautiful setting with a large group of King Penguins.  The Rookery was huge with lots of brown down babies standing around waiting to be fed.

Salisbury Plain was a landing similar to Fortuna Bay.  A huge King Rookery, plus lots of fur seals and some Elephant seals as well.

Not only was it very entertaining to watch the penguins interact and perform their antics but we were surrounded by beautiful scenery too. We were lucky on one day to have a hot day with a cloudless sky. The penguins were so hot though that they had to stand in the sea or the glacial river to cool off as did some Elephant seals.

Stromness was a former whaling village where the famous Shackleton and two of him men walked to over the mountains from the other side of the island to save themselves and eventually the rest of his crew who were on Elephant Island.  Shackleton’s story is so amazing, named after his ship The Endurance. We walked up to the waterfall that Shackleton and his men climbed down.  Seb one of our expedition staff dressed in his traditional gear and slid down the waterfall for us as Shackleton did. Seb actually took part in a re-enactment of Shackleton’s journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia on a small 23 foot boat. He shared his adventure with us throughout our tour as we also were sailing part of this famous route to arrive in South Georgia.

St. Andrew’s Bay was so warm, we were really surprised. One of our expedition staff lived in this small hut for 3 weeks photographing King penguins. This landing was the largest King penguin rookery on the island.  Amazing.

Grytviken is a former whaling station.  Today there is a small museum, post office and research center that is manned several months of the year. Ernest Shackleton is buried in the small cemetery.  We toasted “The Boss” at his grave while Seb read an appropriate poem in his honor. We then had a historical walking tour of the small site which has 25 people living there for about 6 months of the year. Sadly we learned that 175,000 whales were processed at the station but all of the whale was used, not just the blubber.  The museum was small but very informative.  In the post office, we mailed off a couple of post cards for fun. That evening, since the weather was perfect, we had a BBQ on the outside back deck of our ship. What beautiful views we had as we enjoyed a lovely meal

Our last day, the weather turned “normal”. No matter, we went ashore for more penguin and wildlife viewing in Gold’s Harbor. The Kings were very friendly and curious.

We went to extreme effort to get up to the Macaroni rookery high up on the cliff.  Since it was lightly raining, the path was very slippery.  Plus, Fur seals were also all around and not very happy about being disturbed.  We made it up and down without mishap thankfully.

After our climb, we boarded a zodiac to get close to the wildlife on the sea.  We then saw Macaroni penguins close up as they walked into the sea to feed. We also saw large groups of penguins swimming as well as fur seals.  We passed a Cormorant rookery then on to see Chinstrap penguins, and finally saw a Sooty Albatross sitting high up in its nest. Quite a ride.

What a place, South Georgia proved to be.  The wildlife is abundant and amazing to view.  There was never a dull moment.  Our time on shore seemed to whizz by just watching the curious behaviors.  King Penguins have to be our favorite.  They carry themselves so elegantly and their curious trumpeting and poised stances are really fun to observe. We have amazingly seen hundreds of these penguins and were never disappointed.
Here are some favorite photos.

The wildlife aside, the mountains, bays, glaciers, and land scenery has been spectacular.

So, reluctantly we leave South Georgia and sail about 800 miles across the South Ocean above the Wendell Sea to the Antarctic peninsula. If you want to be immersed in penguins, sea fur, elephant seals, albatrosses, other sea birds plus an occasional whale, visit South Georgia.  We can guarantee that you will not be disappointed.  Until the Antarctic Peninsula, remember to be good to yourselves.
Cheers,
Susan and Jim