January 1 Happy 2023 Fortuna Bay and Stromness

 

Shackleton's route is marked in red

We lined up for ship photos in the morning and after lunch sailed to Fortuna Bay to drop off 70 walkers who were to follow the last part of the trek Shackleton took with Crean and Worsley over the mountains to seek help at Stromness, a whaling station.  Shackleton had left 3 sailors at Pegotty Camp, King Haaken Bay and walked with Crean and Worsley to Fortuna Bay and from there across the mountains to Stromness. They recruited the help of the whalers there and a ship set out to rescue the remaining Endurance crew waiting anxiously at King Haaken Bay, South Georgia and also at Point Wild, Elephant Island. It was an amazing feat of endurance and bravery.

The walkers are just dots in centre left.

Fortuna bay is cradled by two glaciers and the waters were quite milky. I love the look of these glacial waters and curiosity sent me looking for an explanation. It seems that the melt water contains sediments of every size all jumbled together. Glacial ‘flour’ is the smallest of that sediment, much smaller than sand, and is what gives the water that milky appearance. 

I watched the landing parties and then followed the 3 groups of walkers climb the hills until they were out of sight. It seemed such an adventurous, exciting thing to do heading into those majestic mountains that I was wishing that I were 20 even 10 years younger and able to join them.   

The ship then sailed back to Stromness and the abandoned whaling station; it was a beautiful cruise along rugged coastline. The weather was bitingly cold and windy but once we reached Stromness people went ashore although not to the station itself as there’s a fair bit of asbestos still around and so it's closed to visitors.  Lindsay went with them and came back frozen and exhausted as the walk was pretty tough going. He had walked to what is known as Shackleton’s waterfall, the place where Shackleton and his two companions had descended from the mountain pass or rather ‘slid down’ almost to the whaling station.  

A big weather system was forming behind us so we left South Georgia earlier than expected in order to reach the Falklands and hopefully land. It was a rough night!