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!