I'm bunking off school to write this. There's a lecture on "Penguin Identification and Biology" but I can't be arsed. The guy who's taking it, Axel, is a bit monotonic and very dull.
The two days between the Falklands and South Georgia were taken up by more of these lectures – four a day. They're actually – usually – quite interesting, but the daily agenda is so full that between them and the eating, you don't really get much time to yourself. Here's the meal pattern of a typical day; pre-breakfast pastries and tea, breakfast, lunch, mid-afternoon cakes and tea, happy hour bar snacks, lunch. It's a lot of food and there are few ways to expend any energy on the days in the open sea.
We had three days at South Georgia. What we could do each day was very much up to the weather which was even more changeable and extreme than in the Falklands. Most of the expedition staff seem obsessed with Earnest Shackleton, an early twentieth century British explorer who did heroic things down here. Although dedicated to his men and the do-er of many brave deeds, from what I can tell he seemed a bit of a git, punching people who disagreed with him, bearing life-long grudges, having his how's-your-father with other people's wives, and all because he wanted to be remembered as a "great man".
We followed the island's east coast, starting on Monday with an attempt to get into a place called Possession Bay for some penguin watching, but the weather was too bad. That afternoon we had better luck, and managed to get ashore at Salisbury Plain to see a huge colony of King Penguins. They're really wonderful birds with very entertaining and curious personalities. As soon as I got off the Zodiac and sat on the beach one waddled up and had a peck at my Welly. On discovering it wasn't a new kind of fish, he wandered off again. You only had to stand still for a few minutes and small groups would nervously approach to check you over. Others would be pecking at each other, squawking or strutting their stuff with members of the opposite sex. There were thousands of individuals on the beach, mixed in with a handful of baby fur seals being insanely cute and staring at you with huge saucer eyes. The adults were quite aggressive and have a reputation for biting unwary tourists, so we kept our distance.
On Tuesday we sailed further around the coast and had a very early morning in Fortuna bay, the sight of another King Penguin colony. The newly risen sun cast a yellowy glow over everything and the sky stayed clear making the visit more peaceful and serene than on the previous day. There are a lot of introduced species on the island, including the reindeer at this site. The government are trying to decide which species to remove and which to leave, but haven't really decided about the reindeer yet. In the afternoon we were back on the main ship and sailed around Stromness harbour where you could see the remains of at least three whaling stations. The industry was huge here in the first half of the twentieth century and the mainly Norwegian whalers culled almost 90% of the stock in the surrounding waters – it's thought numbers will never return to their previous levels. It was considered a very noble occupation back then when attitudes were very different. Now the abandoned stations sit decaying on the coast waiting for the government to make them safe and remove all the toxic materials and asbestos from them.
In the afternoon we carried on around, past Thatcher Peninsula (yes, she liberated South Georgia from the Argies too) to the main settlement. The term is relative of course, as the "settlement" comprises of the museum at the abandoned whaling station at Grytviken (population about 3) and the British Antarctic Survey station next door at King Edward Point (population in the teens, but varies). After raising a toast to "the Shack" (Shackleton) – who's buried in the cemetery here – at the tour leader's behest (and watching his eye's glaze over in admiration) we split up into groups for different activities. I chose to climb Brown Hill, as did about eight others. We were led by Yvonne, the Gladys Pew (remember the Welsh announcer on Hi-De-Hi?) of the tour. Permanently happy and with a silver smooth voice, she set off up the hill with boundless enthusiasm and at a pace that would put the Royal Marines to shame. We trundled up after her as the rain started pouring down. By the time we approached the shale-covered summit, the weather was hailing and howling, but we still had some amazing views over the harbour and the island's interior. Once down again, I had a quick wander around the whaling station (asbestos removed) and museum. A long but excellent day.
We had another early start on Wednesday as we came ashore in Gold Harbour, but the weather was already closing in. We weren't able to get many pictures because of the rain but we able to see some of the Elephant Seals that live on the sands. These are the four tonne, three metre behemoths that guard their harems and then drop dead a few years later from exhaustion. At this time of year most of the really big beasts are out to sea, but there were some juveniles around and they were already damn large animals. And they really stank. In the afternoon we had to make do with a ship tour around Drygalski Fjord as the weather was too poor to go out in the Zodiacs. The whole island is a crinkly network of black mountains with snowy tops and glaciated valleys, and it all looks stunning, but the stormy weather and filtered sunlight made this last view of South Georgia one of the highlights of the trip. To top it off we saw our first icebergs cluttering up the entrance to the fjord.
Last night the storm got a lot worse and gave us our roughest night on board to date. A lot people didn't make it to the evening meal or breakfast this morning. It's one way of avoiding weight gain, I suppose.
Rich.
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