South Georgia…just! – 26 March.

Wow, what a day! The contrast between the sea fog and overcast and grey skies of yesterday and today with blue skies and clear day is stark. South Georgia was appearing before us in the early morning as we sailed towards the Island and along the coast to find a sheltered landing.

While on deck watching our arrival to Gold Harbour a gannet or cormorant or shag as they are known landed on the bridge deck rail and onto the deck. Poor thing couldn’t work out how to get off, it kept either pecking at its reflection or trying to figure out what the Perspex barrier was.

Upon drawing closer to our destination, the smell from the beach was palpable and yuk from the ship.

Last nights news and subsequent plans for our landing went almost to plan. We got to our first landing at Gold Harbour as proposed.

A pretty rough and wet zodiac to shore with Leo. A motor first landing. Some of the passengers are not as agile as would be desired so getting them in and out of moving zodiacs is a real test for the E team.

The landing was just fabulous. It was an assault to the senses. There were thousands of King Penguins and quite a number of Gentoos too. There were heaps of fur seal pups and a bunch of Elephant seals. Along with various bird life – skuas, albatrosses, sheathbills all framed by the craggy snow, glacier and ice covered peaks of Sth Georgia. Luckily the smell we had noticed from the deck earlier was not evident from shore. I learnt later, that the smell was mostly the monstrous Elephant Seals lolling on shore. We had several hours on the beach at Gold Harbour, just under 2000 photos worth. Don’t know how I did that!

There was a cacophony of sound also – a combination of penguins, gulls, skuas and the barking growl of fur seals and elephant seals. This was a stupendous landing – the colours and size and sheer numbers of perfectly preened King penguins was a big tick off the list.

We lunched upstairs in the Rockhopper Restaurant- with a blue sky and white capped seas as we sailed onto our second landing. Unfortunately, there was no chance to land at St Andrew’s Bay, instead we headed for Godthul, which had shelter from the winds and swell.

Godthhul was a very sheltered spot so zodiac cruise in was very flat and easy. Upon landing we ditched our life vests and immediately starting clicking off photos.

The shore is a bit rocky and the beach is black sand and smaller smooth black rocks. There is a lot of kelp washed up of all varieties. This was a whaling station so there are drums and tanks and wooden and other steel bits and pieces strewn in the tussac grass. The beach is also scattered with numerous whale bones.

In terms of wildlife there is heaps of baby and other fur seals, some elephant seals and some gentoos.

There was also the option to walk up the hill though the tussac grass to the flatter plateau about half way up the mountain. Some of the more hardy hikers walked with Max to the saddle higher up.

We were mesmerised by the seals hiding in the tussac grass. Also I noticed lots of little flora – lichens, mosses, grasses and some mushrooms.

Walking up through the tussac grass we had to be wary of seals who had trekked up and hidden in the tussacs. There were several waterfalls and creeks flowing down from above and the seals seemed to love frolicking in the fresh water.

At the top there were two colonies of Gentoo penguins. They we’re undertaking their catastrophic moult. The ground was covered with so many feathers it looked like snow. We couldn’t believe how high they had climbed to find protection and a place to feel safe with no ice, where they could fully moult before returning to the sea.

Some points from todays lectures.

Frank Hurley, Worsley, Frank Wild were all great followers and fans of Shackleton.

Documentary- Shackeltons Captain.

We also learnt that Leo has a tattoo honouring Shackleton – so we got to see that too.

Sadly due to our run to avoid the storms this one day was all we could have on Sth Georgia.

We needed to call into Grytviken for Howard or the ship to complete the necessary paperwork to have landed on Sth Georgia, we also picked up Dee Mitchell who runs the museum at Grytviken for the South Georgia trust. She works 6 months on South Georgia and 6 months in England working for the trust. This all happened during dinner and it was a little strange to see a totally new face on board. Dee was friendly and bright and happy to answer any questions.

The recap and precap must have happened but I have no notes.

Jonathan performed a toast to Shackleton with whisky! This should have happened on our visit to Grytviken where he is buried. There were quite a few very disappointed Shackleton aficionados amongst the passengers but the weather was not our friend.

Generally we now had to run a long way north to avoid the impending storms in the hope we could then turn south west to make it to the Falklands. So another four sea days loomed ahead.