South Georgia! The greatest wildlife oasis of the Southern Ocean
South Georgia! The greatest wildlife oasis of the Southern Ocean. Steeped in history, crowded with penguins, seals, albatross and other icons of the Antarctic, crowned with enormous glaciers, this was the goal we had dreamed of and this morning we arrived and discovered its reality.
A full day of exploration led us to two landings along the northeast coast which, in turn, opened to us two disparate aspects of this island’s mystery and beauty. Our morning was spent at Grytviken Bay, the unofficial capital of South Georgia and the site of one of her great whaling stations. All along the beach rusting sheds of corrugated iron and abandoned equipment evoked this bygone era of exploitation of the island’s biological riches. Nearby we visited the whaler’s cemetery where South Georgia’s most famous visitor, Sir Ernest Shackleton, is buried. With moving words we raised a toast to this great explorer and leader, thinking how different his experience in this region was from our own. There were even a few seals and penguins to observe but only a tiny taste of what was to come.
Following a hearty, warming lunch and quick nap, we landed for the afternoon at St. Andrews Bay, the largest of the King Penguin colonies on the island and truly a wildlife spectacle without equal. Wandering along the gray sand beach we zigzagged our course to maneuver around large groups of kings and Southern Elephant Seals, which only got thicker as we made our way along. Pausing to take photo after photo, observe interesting behaviors and laugh at antics of birds and mammals, we drank in the scene with all our senses. Penguins cawed and brayed, the seals made a rich variety of noises for which no description exists! Fresh salt air blew though our hair and we could taste its tang on our tongues. And our eyes never knew where to rest. Over the crowds of penguins, beyond the piles of seals, the gray beach swept up into the black hills, the mist and glaciers beyond. It was South Georgia; we were here at last!
South Georgia! The greatest wildlife oasis of the Southern Ocean. Steeped in history, crowded with penguins, seals, albatross and other icons of the Antarctic, crowned with enormous glaciers, this was the goal we had dreamed of and this morning we arrived and discovered its reality.
A full day of exploration led us to two landings along the northeast coast which, in turn, opened to us two disparate aspects of this island’s mystery and beauty. Our morning was spent at Grytviken Bay, the unofficial capital of South Georgia and the site of one of her great whaling stations. All along the beach rusting sheds of corrugated iron and abandoned equipment evoked this bygone era of exploitation of the island’s biological riches. Nearby we visited the whaler’s cemetery where South Georgia’s most famous visitor, Sir Ernest Shackleton, is buried. With moving words we raised a toast to this great explorer and leader, thinking how different his experience in this region was from our own. There were even a few seals and penguins to observe but only a tiny taste of what was to come.
Following a hearty, warming lunch and quick nap, we landed for the afternoon at St. Andrews Bay, the largest of the King Penguin colonies on the island and truly a wildlife spectacle without equal. Wandering along the gray sand beach we zigzagged our course to maneuver around large groups of kings and Southern Elephant Seals, which only got thicker as we made our way along. Pausing to take photo after photo, observe interesting behaviors and laugh at antics of birds and mammals, we drank in the scene with all our senses. Penguins cawed and brayed, the seals made a rich variety of noises for which no description exists! Fresh salt air blew though our hair and we could taste its tang on our tongues. And our eyes never knew where to rest. Over the crowds of penguins, beyond the piles of seals, the gray beach swept up into the black hills, the mist and glaciers beyond. It was South Georgia; we were here at last!
