Day 12: Elsehul & Prion Island
January 8th, 2015
“Above all else we wish that the name of South Georgia will forever represent an icy paradise,
a place where nature is still mostly robust and the way of life of millions of birds, penguins, and seals
goes on almost unaltered by the peripheral presence of humans. A clean, pure spring
of icy water in our collective consciousness, a soothing, refreshing balm amid the
upheavals wrought upon the earth. A precious place to cherish.”
– Pauline and Tim Carr, Antarctic Oasis
a place where nature is still mostly robust and the way of life of millions of birds, penguins, and seals
goes on almost unaltered by the peripheral presence of humans. A clean, pure spring
of icy water in our collective consciousness, a soothing, refreshing balm amid the
upheavals wrought upon the earth. A precious place to cherish.”
– Pauline and Tim Carr, Antarctic Oasis
Today was a day for the birds. Or, at least for the birders. We began with a zodiac cruise around Elsehul looking up at the albatross and petrel nests dotting the cliffs by the coast and a small accumulation of macaroni penguins jumping in and out of the water onto the rocky coast. We of course saw seals playing in the surf, and a beach lined with king penguins, but most of our time was spent amongst these giant birds in the water. Our favorite part? Watching the massive birds try to take off from the water – they managed to succeed, but the beginning attempts were pretty funny. At lunch, we heard about the morning adventures of the guests who chose to hike up the tussock to try to get a better view of the nests, and instead of nests they found lots of mud, which claimed a few cameras and tried to keep a few boots… So we were pretty happy about our choice to cruise around. In the afternoon we got to walk up the boardwalk on Prion Island to get a closer look at the nests of the wandering albatross, one of the largest birds in the world with a wingspan of up to 11.5 feet. These large birds spend their first 5 years after fledging flying around the Southern Ocean before coming back to land. We were pretty lucky to find a nest not even 10 feet from the top of the boardwalk, which gave us an even better view of this massive creature – it’s not hard to understand the long flights they can take when you can see them up close. Even though we’re not birders, we couldn’t help but to stand in awe at the massive size of these birds and their nests.
Day 13: Salisbury Plain, Fortuna Bay, & Stromness
January 9th, 2015
“I go exploring because I like it and it’s my job.”
– Sir Ernest Shackleton
– Sir Ernest Shackleton
Salisbury Plain is the flattest section of land on the entirety of South Georgia and where we spent our morning today. Last night it snowed, which left a gorgeous dusting on the nearby mountain ranges and provided a beautiful backdrop while we visited another large king penguin colony on a beach littered with fur seals and their pups. The flat section of land provided the colony and seals a beautiful expanse of grass and a slight hill behind the beach on which they could relax and spread out. It was just a little bit quieter at Salisbury Plain, despite being home to more penguins and seals. We spent our time watching the kings trudge through the mud to get from their hill to the water and the molting juveniles watching in envy as their older friends got to swim. Things we learned at Salisbury Plain: do not put your nose where a king penguin can reach it. In the afternoon we sailed to Fortuna Bay, the location Shackleton mistook for Stromness in his 36-hour trek across South Georgia. 58 passengers got off the NG Orion and set off to take the last few hours of that hike. Shackleton and his men would’ve found the “trail” in fall rather than summer, when it would’ve been snow-covered and all the water frozen over, so we tackled the loose shale and 1000ft elevation in slightly more favorable conditions. The climb down was pretty steep, but we all made it across with no injuries! Once we’d crossed to Stromness, we found an abandoned whaling station, now populated by fur seals and… our boat! We spent most of our time by the whaling station oohing over the fur seal pups, who were using the discarded propellers as jungle gyms and were having fun hamming it up for their visitors. It was a pretty interesting day, especially because we had the chance to (literally) follow in Shackleton’s footsteps, which (like our stops on Elephant Island) gave us an incredible appreciation for his entire journey.