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, I think! 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. This group of islands is partially submerged in the southern Indian Ocean.  A small party from that expedition was stationed on one of the 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’d love to go there. Despite being trapped in ice for nearly fourteen months until February 1903, the expedition discovered new territory in Antarctica. 

The h

The end of the Drygalski Fjord

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 packed colonies of seals and penguins on the beach. 

Gold Harbour

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.  Macquarie Island penguins were so curious perhaps they got fewer visitors - back then.  Quite likely the penguins of South Georgia are so used to human visitors that we no longer hold any novelty value.  Nevertheless, the beach setting was rather spectacular against its backdrop of lush green slopes dotted with large cushions of thick tussock grass sliced through here and there with waterfalls and all crowned  with a huge glacier.  

The penguins were predominately King Penguins

Two parents with presumably their juvenile still showing some baby down

When they're molting they can't feed. Juveniles have black beaks.

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 flopped around playing or snuggled up to each other; they are thigmotactic – they love to cuddle! Such sweet faces. Incidentally the majority of Southern Elephant Seals breed on South Georgia and some of the Atlantic Subantarctic islands.  The sea lions, 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 Gentoos strutted through the crowd. 

"Out of my way I'm coming through!" 

The Elephant Seals kept throwing 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 white Snowy 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. If not for the scavengers the beach would be knee-deep with carcasses.

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.