South Georgia 2017
We had been wanting to return to South Georgia ever since we were here briefly in 2011. This photo is of Salisbury Plain taken from our ship with the Grace and Lucas Glaciers in the background. The white dots on the beach are King Penguins.
It's a long trip to reach South Georgia. We flew to Santiago, Chile, then to Punta Arenas, Chile, and then to Stanley, Falkland Islands where we boarded our ship that took 2.5 days to reach South Georgia. You can see that it is not too far from the Antarctic Peninsula.
This is the Akademik Sergey Vavilov, our exploration ship, in a photo I took when riding in a zodiac in Jason Harbour. The ship is Russian owned, and we heard stories that the ship was previously a spy ship converted to an exploration ship after the cold war. It was a stable ship in rough seas and quite comfortable.
South Georgia as seen by Google Earth. The island consists mostly of rugged mountains and huge glaciers.
This map shows the locations and dates of the places we visited during our expedition.
This black-browed albatross followed our ship for many hours as we traveled to South Georgia. During that time I never saw it flap its wings.
As we steamed to South Georgia for well over a day we saw heavy fog and of course the occasional albatross. The fog was the result of traveling through the Antarctic Convergence, a zone where the cold waters of Antarctica meet the warmer waters of the north.
Another black-browed albatross cleverly catching an updraft from the wave behind it to keep it aloft.
It is our first sighting of land and we're greeted by our ever-present albatrosses. These birds have wingspans up to 12 feet and live to nearly 50 years of age. They are marvelous to watch in flight.
We reached South Georgia to be welcomed by a multitude of sunbeams.
We were eager to go ashore when we saw beams of light revealing the landscape.
At our first landing at Jason Harbour I saw this young fur seal amongst the tussock grass.
A fur seal playing at the water's edge.
Young fur seals love to spar with one another. They also like to charge humans but it only takes facing them and making yourself "big" to send them scampering away.
Now this is a face to love. It is an elephant seal basking in the warm sun we were lucky to have at Jason Harbour.
I'm not sure this elephant seal was greeting us, snarling at us, or belching. His companion could care less.
Elephant seaks like to huddle together in small rookeries like this one.
Male elephant seals are about twice the size of females, measuring up to 20 feet in length and weighing over 8000 pounds. They spend most of their time at sea and can stay underwater for up to 100 minutes.
We were happy to see our first king penguins dancing on the beach. We shall see many more.
We landed on the beach at Salisbury Plains to an amazing sight of king penguins and fur seals as far as the eye could see.
Is this not a beautiful bird! Look at the colors, the texture, the beak, the eye. It's a king penguin.
Two king penguins looking out over the vast colony at Salisbury Plains.
Togetherness
Estimates vary from 250,000 to 500,000 king penguins residing at Salisbury Plains. It's not just the sight of them that impacts you, it's the sound of them chirping at each other and the profound smell of so much guano.
King penguins go to sea to eat small fish and squid. They do not rely on krill much.
King penguins are serially monogamous. They are loyal to a mate for a year, but then many find a new mate the next year.
These birds are amazing divers, going as deep as 1000 feet, but more often to about 300 feet and they will stay under for up to 5 minutes.
This young king penguin is in the process of shedding his brown coat to eventually have the beautiful colors of an adult. It takes about a year for that transition to occur.
Here is a young king penguin much further along in shedding his brown coat.
Taking a romantic stroll along the beach perhaps! King penguins are about 30-36 inches tall and weigh between 25-40 lbs.
The predators of king penguins include giant petrels, skuas, leopard seals, and orca whales.
Young chick seeking food from her mother who feeds her chicks by regurgitating the food she ate at sea.
A moment of commitment.
The orange fee of a gentoo penguin.
Elephant seals in the foreground with the colony of king penguins in the background at Salisbury Plains.
Leaving our king penguins behind for a moment, we sailed by the Nordenskjold Glacier.
We made our way to Prion Island where we climbed a small hill to get this view of a wandering albatross on a nest.
This wandering albatross was tucked up for a snooze, but kept an eye on me.
The wandering albatross fully awake.
Wandering albatrosses spend most of their time in flight, stopping only to breed and feed.
Pairs of wandering albatrosses mate for life and breed every two years.
We had a special day visiting Grytviken, a whaling station in the early 1900s. This Google view shows the protected bay.
Grytviken was the site where 53,761 whales were slaughtered for their oil and meat.
The whaling station was in operation for nearly 50 years, but now is a rusting junkyard.
A fur seal drinking from a small stream at Grytviken.
A chained whaling ship. Note the harpoon gun on the bow.
More rusting ships in the harbor at Grytviken. This place was made famous by Earnest Shackleton making his way here from Antarctica in a row boat to get help to rescue the men he left behind.
