40 Below: An Antarctic Birthday Quest #5 (South Georgia Island - Day 1&2)

Saturday March 4, 2023

South Georgia Island, Day 1

We awoke at about 5:30am at the expedition leader’s recommendation to watch the boat arrive at the tip of South Georgia Island at first light and we were greeted with a thick wall of fog and some vague shapes of shadowy peaks in the mist. Shortly after our breakfast which started at 6:30am today, the clouds started to burn off and we headed into Right Whale Bay to visit a King Penguin colony. The swell was still hefty but the sun broke through and we had really lovely weather and a stiff wind to greet us in this pristine locale. Very mountainous, views of glaciers and dramatic, sharp peaks as far as the eye could see, it’s an entirely different landscape than the Falklands.    

Right Whale Bay

For context, (and to brag a little bit, clearly) I have camped in the Serengeti amongst prowling lions and hyenas, I have seen lots of bears on hiking trails, been charged by a bull elephant, gone swimming with sharks, had a moose cross the street in front of me, and been to countless zoos the world over. And then I am surveying this secluded and protected bay on an isolated island in a harsh climate, and I know this is going to be the single most amazing wildlife spectacle I’ve ever witnessed. I haven’t taken three steps onto the beach after getting off the zodiac and there are already penguins in my way that are inspecting me with their diamond-shaped eyes and silky-looking plumage. Then a few more steps and I already have to hold a walking stick out to lightly touch the whiskers of an overly curious seal pup who has hopped right up to me, made a sheep-like bleat, and stared at me with massive brown eyes that take up 60% of its adorable face.

I can't with the cuteness.

The other travelers in my group are having similar encounters and are similarly astounded and delighted and we hadn’t even been there 5 minutes. Then we start walking along the beach, following a route carefully marked so as not to disturb nests or get in the way of the inhabitants any more than we already are. We go down the beach, up a short hill to the top of a rock-outcropping and suddenly I’m staring at a literal river of penguins. Any available land below was covered in King penguins. And I had to be careful not to step on any of the carefully hidden seal pups in the large tufts of tussock grass as I walked up the hill too! The penguin colony was 60,000 penguins strong, and full of chicks who were cleverly protected at the center of the herd. You couldn’t even see them unless you had binoculars.

King penguin colony

We had three hours to explore the short beach but it was so full of life and amazing things happening that I barely made it back to my boat in time. Our guides have been excellent and not only know their subject matter well, they truly love their areas. One of our guides, has worked with penguins since she was 15 and is genuinely excited every time she gets near them. She told me a story about living near and studying a King penguin colony for 6 months and observing them every day, even in hurricane-force winds to the point where she had to crawl along the ground to get there, but crawl she did, just to see her favorite animal. You can ask them almost anything about penguins or most things that we see and any of our guides will know the answer or will find it for you. They are terrific.

So after a truly incredible morning of very close animal encounters, we went back to the boat for lunch, grabbed hot drinks and ate lunch. Then we bundled back up for afternoon zodiac cruises which happened in Sunset Fjord, a short cruise away from Right Whale Bay. Sidenote: over 175,000 whales were killed and processed on South Georgia Island from the late 1800s through to 1960 when the whaling industry stopped there. Right Whales were called that because they were slow and big, thus easy to hit with a harpoon, making them the “Right Whale” to hunt for.

The afternoon zodiac cruises happened in high winds and rain/sleet. For 90 minutes you’re in an open boat on the water cruising around the bay looking for wildlife. I saw my first adult male elephant seal. It was at least 12 feet long and it was laying down asleep so I’m not sure how tall it would be. There were Chinstrap, King and Adelie penguins around the fjord as well as another several thousand fur seals, mostly pups. They find little protected pools where they practice swimming, enthusiastically twisting, diving, and splashing around with their young playmates.

Sunset Fjord is also the meeting point of several glaciers around the bay and they are so beautiful. You can see that elusive glacial blue in the fins of the glacier mixed with the black igneous rock dust and the pure white snow. That kind of color combination is one of the reasons I came down here. It was very cold and wet on the boat but an exhilarating way to spend the afternoon. There were icebergs in the water that had calved off from the surrounding glaciers. And the water is that extraordinary blue color that comes from glacial moraine like you see in Banff or Jasper NPs in British Columbia.

We made it back on deck and I had just a very little bit of time before dinner so I went to the sauna to warm up and it felt amazing. Then it was recap time, dinner time where I learned more about the business pursuits of California Orange 1 and 2, and then per usual, bedtime early.

 

Sunday March 5, 2023

South Georgia Island Day 2 – Fortuna Bay and Stromness Whaling Station

The morning began with the biggest swells I’ve experienced on board yet. The seas were rolling and I woke up at about 5am to the boat listing so much I almost fell out of my bed. Things were falling off shelves and closet doors were opening. It only lasted about an hour but it was an indication that the winds were already high. They were sustained today around 35 knots, making it just at the outer edge of safe to get in the zodiacs and go to shore. We have been getting gusts of 50-55 knots as well, which are generally katabatic winds off the glaciers (because they come straight down on top of you). After taking the zodiacs to the beach we were again greeted with our friendly black and white and yellow King penguin friends. And of course, my favorite, the little fur seal pups running up to inspect as well. On this bay, there is an old cave where sealers used to live while they hunted their prizes. It would have been a lonely and isolated place to get stuck for a while, but given what the winds were today and how it felt, even on a relatively warm and partially sunny day, any strong shelter would have been essential to survival.

I walked around the sealers cave and then down the beach where I had to work hard to keep the little fur seal pups from coming up too close to me. We were told very strictly not to touch anything and to only use walking sticks to lightly brush the whiskers of the seal pups if they got too close. This technique wasn’t working and one kept biting the end of my stick so I ended up just clapping my hands loudly and that did the trick. They are very persistent little furballs.

The weather shifts in 5-minute increments between snow, hail, winds that could knock you over, and then warm sunshine. It can’t seem to stay on any one of those for very long, making it difficult for the expedition team to make decisions about what activities we can and cannot do. I am very sympathetic about these kinds of conditions impacting what you can safely do with a group like ours, but it is inhibiting. You can tell it bothers the staff too. But they are adept at handling it and finding good alternatives for us. About the only common thread in Antarctica trip planning is that you can only count on the fact that your plans will change, and you will encounter very wild weather at some point. Every tour company mentions it, some more obviously than others, and very few make any guarantees about what you will see, where you will go, and what you can do. This is clearly very wise and comes from a lot of experience in these waters.

At Stromness whaling station (after passing Leith and Husvik), they planned a hike for us to a waterfall and also a visit around the now defunct whaling stations. I spent the hike chatting with California Orange 1 and his wife, Breadfruit. The waterfall was pretty but nothing like what we had seen in Sunset Fjord coming off the massive glaciers. The landscape at Stromness, and much of South Georgia Island, bears striking resemblance to Alaska, especially where there are rivers. The rocky beds, the glacial moraine in the surrounding hills and the silt in the clear, cold water all reminded me of Denali National Park.

Waterfall hike