South Georgia
An early morning out in the South Atlantic Ocean we were woken up by one of the guides that told us to look out of the windows. The sky was clear and we were facing an unbelievable panorama view over the coastline of South Georgia. A mix of glaciers and sharp mountain peaks. So beautiful!
South Georgia is a little diamond and it was going to be the highlight of the trip. We spent one week sailing along the north coast and made landings at different places every day to meet the fantastic wildlife. Travelling to Antarctica without visiting South Georgia is not recommended, because it is on this particular island that the magnificent wildlife encounters occur.
The red marks show places were we landed. (Map from nationalgeographic.com)
The island belongs to Great Britain and is most famous for the whaling era in the early 19th century. In the year of 1904 the Norwegian sailor Carl Anton Larsen sailed to South Georgia and founded the whaling station Grytviken, which is the capital of the island. Today there are no permanent settlers on South Georgia, but close to Grytviken you can find a manned research station. Two persons are also employed to take care of the little museum located among the ruins of the whaling station.
Our first landing in South Georgia was made at the little bay Elsehul in the north-western part of the island. Here we met the grey-headed albatrosses living high up in the cliff walls.
During the afternoon at the same day we landed at Rosita Harbour. There we met some elephant seals and one young fur seal.
The following morning we were landing at Salisbury Plain where thousands of king penguins are living. The chicks look like brown down balls. According to the statistics approximately 250 000 penguins can be found here during the peak season! I wonder who counted them! :-)
Prion Island was our next destination. When we landed here we were greeted by some cool beach boys, namely three gentoo penguins who were approaching us with curiosity.
Here we also met the great wandering albatross. It can have a wing span of more then 3 metres! We saw both one chick and one adult.
The next day we landed at Fortuna Bay and from there we hiked to the abandoned whaling station Stromness. The hike was approximately five kilometres and brought us up in the mountains and down into the next valley. The downhill part was very quick, it was just to sit down on your butt and slide down the snowy slope. Adult people were behaving like children again! :-)
The hike is quite famous. It is the last part of the hike that Ernest Shackleton did to cross the island, in the early 1900's to find help for his ship wrecked men stranded on Elephant Island. This happened during Shackleton's third expedition to Antarctica when his ship Endurance was captured by the ice and finally sank. Shackleton and his crew managed to save themselves and sailed to the Elephant Island in their life boats after living on the ice for some months. From there Shackleton and five of his men sailed to South Georgia in one of the life boats to look for help. It took them seventeen days to reach South Georgia. Because of currents and winds they landed on the south side of the island, which was uninhabited. They had to cross the island on foot to reach one of the whaling stations, which were all located on the north coast. That trip is impressing!
To travel the same distance over the sea with the ship Ocean Nova took us less than two days, compared to Shackleton's 17 days!
From the beautiful Maiviken we did another hike to Grytviken. We enjoyed a day with sunny weather and it was good to get some exercise after all the days with plenty of delicious food onboard the Ocean Nova.
In Grytviken we visited the little museum, which shows what the life in a whaling station was like. Just imagine living here isolated during the cold winter!
Before we left Grytviken we all gathered at the cemetery for a little ceremony next to Shackleton's grave. He died in Grytviken in the year of 1922 when he was returning to Antarctica once again.
The following day we landed at Gold Harbour and the "big rocks" that we could spot on the beach showed out to be alive. The beach is, like many beaches in South Georgia covered by elephant seals. The huge males are fighting for the females and you have to stay out of their way to avoid being smashed to the ground.
In Gold Harbour we also met penguins, both king penguins and gentoo penguins fearlessly walking around among the elephant seals.
The highlight at Gold Harbour was definitely the meeting with the light-mantled sooty albatross, what a cute little fellow.
In Cooper Bay we met a new species of penguin; the macaroni penguin. They lived on a natural balcony overlooking the bay below.
When we made a zodiac cruise in Cooper Bay we saw lots of Gentoo Penguins swimming around us. Penguins look so funny when they are swimming, they just shoot out of the water in a curve before they dive again and pop up in a new place.
After a beautiful day we watched the sunset before it was time for dinner.
Early next morning we sailed into the Drygalski Fjord. Steep cliffs meet the water at both sides and between the mountain peaks glaciers are flowing into the fjord. We met a lonely gentoo penguin, who was standing on an ice sheet and watching us.
Our week on South Georgia ended with a zodiac cruise in Småland Cove. The bay has a Swedish name because of the scientist Anders Sparrman who sailed here together with James Cook during the 1770's.
Our week on South Georgia ended with a zodiac cruise in Småland Cove. The bay has a Swedish name because of the scientist Anders Sparrman who sailed here together with James Cook during the 1770's.
After we had left South Georgia a lottery was held onboard. The money that was collected was going to support a project to save albatrosses from being caught by long-line fishing. To support the project I bought some lottery tickets and I was lucky and won the second price, a book about South Georgia called Antarctic Oasis - Under the Spell of South Georgia. The book is written by Tim and Pauline Carr who were two of the guides on our trip. They lived in their sailboat in Grytviken for a couple of years and wrote a book about it. Interesting reading!
A signed book with a personal greeting was a very nice memory from our week in South Georgia!
A signed book with a personal greeting was a very nice memory from our week in South Georgia!
Shag Rocks
Far away out in the ocean, between Falkland Islands and South Georgia, you can find a cluster of large rocks known as Shag Rocks. There is no vegetation on the six rocks but they are inhabited by thousands of shags. The rocks are almost completely covered by shags, which gave the rocks their name.
The rocks are often hidden in fog and with all the birds flying around it makes the place a little spooky. When we passed them the sea was quite wild and large waves hit the rocks. Better not to come too close! The first person who landed on the rocks was lowered down from a helicopter since it's difficult to get close enough by boat.
A close-up on one relative to the shags at Shag Rocks. I took this photo on the Falkland Islands and I think this shag had found a nicer place to live at compared to the ones living at Shag Rocks.
