Thursday, March 05, 2015

Shackell-Smith’s visit Shackleton





An early wake up call at 6am as we were going through Drygalski Fjord. The winds were so strong that it was sweeping us off our feet and the rain hit the face like needles. Big steep cliffs, waterfalls, albatross soaring, blue eyed shags, seals and penguins in the water, Antarctic Terns and torquiose glacial water. So different from the black waters of the Antarctic. South Georgia is absolutely teaming with wildlife. So much so, Ali spent two and a half hours on deck photographing the wildlife. She didn’t want to miss a thing. We saw wandering and black browed albatross. The rainbows were spectacular and stayed for most of the day. At the end of the Fjord is a huge glacier. 

Our morning briefing for South Georgia was interrupted by Orca, I’ve never seen them before so was over the moon. We stayed in the mouth of the bay for quite a while, the winds were gale force so we couldn’t get to Grytviken. We were meant to land at 1pm but didn’t arrive until 5pm. A representative from the charity eradicating rats on South Georgia came aboard to talk about their project which is incredibly successful.
We then finally landed on South Georgia and ran the gauntlet of fur seal pups. There were so many and they would chase you, teeth showing. We have been warned multiple times about seals so I was petrified of the tiny things. They were rather cute though, I’d hate to come across a mummy seal though. I’m scared of the little ones! We saw the majestic King Penguins and Gentoo penguins. 

We walked to a memorial to Shackleton, then walked around the beach to Grytviken. I say walked, most of it involved dodging the seal pups that were trying to bite us for being in their territory. A quick sprint past Grytviken, I was on a mission, to visit Shackleton’s grave, a dream I’ve had for a long time.

No comments: