South Georgia was the second major stop for us in our Antarctic cruise on the Ocean Nova (We passed Shag Rocks on our way, but it was a driveby – literally a float-by). This island also has a really interesting and colorful history:
- The base for all Antarctic whaling activity from the early 1900s until the 1960s (when most of the whales in the Southern Ocean had been hunted).
- The finish line of Shackleton’s spectacular rescue of his Endurance crew, after:
- A 50-mile hike across the island, without sleep
- An 800-mile lifeboat journey (where any slight navigation miss would have caused them to completely miss the island) from the Antarctic Peninsula
- A 40-mile sledge pull of lifeboats off the Endurance
- It’s now one of the main research sites of the British Antarctic Survey, and supports a population of 89 researchers (nine, that’s correct)
We were able to spend four days in and around South Georgia. We made landings in incredible weather – both good and bad. We saw several spots on the 100-mile island, including (click each photo to see the rest from that landing):
- Salisbury Plain, one of our coldest landings (40+MPH winds, and a driving rain). We saw a lot of King Penguins here, as you can see from the photos.
- Fortuna Bay, where we got to see some more penguins. But, there were also a few reindeer there:
- Stromness, the site of one of the abandoned whaling stations on the island. We also saw Shackleton’s waterfall – the waterfall he and his men climbed down when they finally realized that they could be saved.
- Grytviken, capital of the island, where the British Antarctic Survey is based. It’s also the former site of the biggest whaling station on the Island, and where Shackleton is buried. Even the driving snow made it more difficult to see, we did see our first Chinstrap penguin.
- Gold Harbour, where we had beautiful weather. We saw some elephant seals, a lot of penguins (of course), and some great fur seals.
- Cooper Bay, the site of our only Macaroni Penguin landing.
Enjoy!
