December 31 New Years Eve at Hercules Bay, Grytviken

 It was not a good night – I have a racking cough and sore ribs made worse by the coughing. A visit to the ship’s doctor to check out my bruises and bumps and also to check my lungs. Nothing sinister other than a little bronchitis.  Hah!

This afternoon we land at Grytviken, the administrative centre of South Georgia. The ship dropped off large group of walkers at Maiviken to walk via an overland pass to meet the rest of us at Grytviken. The ship then repositioned in Cumberland Bay and Howard picked up the government officers. After a stringent biosecurity check we went ashore to what was once a thriving whaling station. 

Top R is King Edward Point, the administrative centre for South Georgia

We wandered through the rusting remains of the old processing station around which penguins and seals made themselves quite at home. Then we finally straggled up to the cemetery where Shackleton is buried. Coincidentally he died almost 101 years to the day – 5 Jan 1922. A large group of us gathered with tot of whiskey, Nina the ship's historian gave a tribute to 'the Boss' and we all toasted the great man – it was quite moving.  

Back on-board things were winding up for a wild old NYE party but not before a curious crowd gathered in the Citizen Science Centre on board to look at what Russell had collected in the water earlier that day. It was quite fascinating and a few sciences enthusiasts were born. The Centre is not quite finished but there were a couple of microscopes with cameras attached and we had fun identifying the beasties wriggling under our gaze.  

At dinner things started to wind up and it got rowdier as the night wore on so we headed for bed around 10pm. The  celebrations kept going until 1am or later. There were a few sore heads in the morning!

December 30 that afternoon at Cooper Bay, South Georgia

If the morning wasn’t enough, the afternoon saw us out looking for more wildlife. This time we were after Macaroni penguins - and more fur seals - at Cooper Bay.

Yep they were up there over that hill!

We landed on that beach.

We split in two groups - half of us landed at a narrow beach full of fur seals and headed up a steep slope to the penguin colony. I took one look at the slope and my heart sank. Lindsay kept telling me “you can do it” but oh dear what a climb nevertheless I did give it a go. In the end, it proved too much for me (and Lindsay) and we returned to the beach. I have to tell you that we were wearing gumboots (at least a size too big!) and life jackets plus our other clobber  – I mean really!  Lindsay and I stood on the beach with one of the guides, the gentle Lizelle, for about an hour fending off mother fur seals – the beach was a nursery and whoa betide you if you got between mother and pup. The mothers are extremely intimidating and aggressive and not in the least afraid. We had to be wary and learnt to stand our ground. Eventually the penguin-hunters descended with varying degrees of grumbles about the difficulty of the climb – both ways. And then the second wave of passenger arrived on shore to tackle the slope and we all hopped into the zodiacs to explore.  

"Stay away from my baby"

This guy would have tackled anyone - they are dotted all through the tussocks.

Sweet little pets!

There was a creche of a number of youngster watched over by a very large female.

And then the group descended many grumbling as they came - too hard for many!

But lucky us saw lots of Macaroni closeup without the climb! The name? The person who named them reckoned they looked like Yankee Doodle – you know the one who stuck a feather in his hat and called him Macaroni. Very jaunty! 

Lots of them spilling down the hill.

We had expected to do a seaweed survey with Russell but the tide was too high. Instead he took us poking into narrow crevasses and through skeins of rubbery kelp. 

Macaronis - very jaunty

Fascinating coastline

It was quite exciting but extremely cold. Time was slipping by so we headed to other beach to look mainly for gentoos. It was a surf beach so we had to be careful not to get caught in the waves (I think Russell may have liked to surf in on the zodiac!)

Russell is a mad driver and took the zodiac at full pelt through waves and increasing swells; Lindsay was in a lot of pain each time the zodiac crashed back on the water (we both had sore ribs from our polar plunge). The weather continued to deteriorate and by the time we got back shipside there was quite a swell. I missed the step going between zodiac and ship and with no help or support from the seaman at the portal (obviously new to the job) or our zodiac driver, I fell heavily into the ship and  sustained a lot of bruised and swellings on my legs but no breakages. 

This was today - a great very long day

December 30 Drygalski Fjord & Gold Harbour, South Georgia

 

What a beautiful morning!  After a couple of days with blustering winds and snow crossing the Scotia sea we woke this morning to blue skies - and yes wind but it was a weeny bit warmer. We have arrived at South Georgia! When I say we woke, we got a wake up call at 4am because we had just rounded the point at Cape Disappointment and were entering Drygalski fjord. The fjord is rather spectacular. Towering snow-patched mountains, rugged rocks showing slabs of red and green here and there. As someone said it’s like the Swiss Alps had been plonked into the Scotia sea. We all huddled in the Observation lounge dashing out every now and then on deck to get photos. It was chilly and extremely windy! We drank the coffee machine dry and then once 5:30 came ducked down for an early morning pastry. It was a marvelous couple of hours but then we scuttled back to bed for a bit of sleep before the breakfast call. 

Just a little about Drygalski because there are a number of places named for him, the first I remember was in the Ross sea when we were there in 2020; his name fascinated me. He, Erich von Drygalski, was a German geographer, geophysicist and polar scientist. In 1901, he led the first German South Polar expedition with the ship Gauss to explore the unknown area of Antarctica lying south of the Kerguelen Islands also known as the Desolation Islands, a group of islands partially submerged in the southern Indian Ocean.  A small party of the expedition was stationed on the Kerguelen Islands while the main party proceeded further south. Drygalski also paid a brief call to Heard Island (now an Australian territory) and provided the first comprehensive scientific information on the island's geology, flora and fauna - I want to go there. Despite being trapped by ice for nearly fourteen months until February 1903, the expedition discovered new territory in Antarctica. 

In the meantime back to the Drygalski fjord .... we were all a bit bug-eyed but excited about an imminent landing amongst the wildlife! From our cabin we could almost hear the seals and penguins calling to us! We were after wildlife! So the ship sailed on to Gold Harbour where we piled into the zodiacs to wend our way through seals and penguins knee-deep on the beach. 

The scene that greeted us reminded me a little of Macquarie island where we visited in 2020 except here the penguins didn’t come out to meet the ship nor circle the zodiacs as we headed for the beach and unlike Macquarie Island they didn’t wade out to the greet us as we hoisted ourselves over the sides of the zodiacs – Macquarie Island penguins were so curious.  Maybe those who gather on the beaches of South Georgia are used to human visitors that we no longer hold any novelty value.  Nevertheless, the setting was rather spectacular against its backdrop of lush green slopes cushioned with thick tussock grass sliced through here and there with waterfalls and topped with a huge glacier.  

The penguins were predominately King penguins

When they're molting they can't feed. They looks so resigned as they wait.

The big brown fluff balls are the babies.

These two were courting

On the beach the Elephant seals were lolling around like ginormous slugs peeling chunks of fur, belching, groaning and coughing while their young ones flopped around playing or snuggled up to each other; they are thigmotaxic – they love to cuddle! Such sweet faces. Incidentally 54% of Southern Elephant seal mate on South Georgia.  Antarctic fur seals, particularly the young ones, were fighting for prized tussock grass castles or careered about in mock fights. We picked our way carefully through seals and penguins, mostly Kings but a few Gentoo strutted through the crowd. 

"Out of my way I'm coming through!" 

The elephant seals threw sand over themselves to stay cool

This little guy was trying to chill out - head on rock and feet stretched out on the damp sand,

Fearless

Adorable young elephant seals

Hungry, hopeful Giant Skuas crouched nonchalantly here and there and snowy white Sheathbills scrounged for titbits on the perimeter. Scattered about here and there amongst the cacophony of life were a few picked-over carcasses – this was life in the raw.

After what seemed like hours, we headed back to the mothership for lunch – and a longed-for sit down. While ashore we were not allowed to sit or kneel or put our bags down for fear of introducing a nasty invasive species or other.