South Georgia

This is a very special place because it is so isolated, and the birds and seals have been allowed to live and repopulate the area after suffering nearly catastrophic losses during the whaling and sealing years from the early 19th through the mid-20th centuries.  Whales were also hunted nearly to extinction, but we haven’t yet been blessed with sightings.  Hopefully this will change when we get into Antarctic waters.

Our first glimpse of South Georgia at breakfast was…

… breathtaking.

As we took in the scope of Salisbury Plain…

… I zoomed in from our perch on top of the boat, to find the beach and plain covered…

… and alongside the boat, groups of King penguins were returning from their fishing.

This is what we looked like when we went ashore -

There was always a “welcoming” committee of penguins and seals…

… but we were constantly on our guard for the Antarctic Fur Seals…

They were stinky and aggressive, and we were warned to give them a wide berth. A number of staff were always posted along walkways, holding a hiking pole. When a seal approached, they would stand tall and wave their arms and pole, to keep the seal away from those of us with cameras and binoculars.

The King Penguins were either oblivious or curious, but mostly self-absorbed in preening…

…because they were moulting.

There was an enormous King penguin rookery…

… that was noisy… (click link at bottom of email to open in browser to watch video)

…and full of curious (and hungry) youngsters.

As you could see from the pictures, we were blessed with a gorgeous sunny day to take in the sights (and reflections)…

…and many seals enjoyed napping in the sun -

Most baby animals are darling, and seal pups are no exception. Since we were early in the season, there weren’t many, but I did find this pair of fur seals…

… and an adorable whiskered face…

…but the Elephant Seal pups took the cake for sheer size. This one was only 3 weeks old!

Elephant seals constantly grabbed my attention because of their enormity. The next picture shows the size difference between males and females - the male has his flipper over a female (sorry it’s a little blurry, but this was the angle that showed the difference the best) -

On later landings, I have more pictures of Elephant seals, as well as videos of them moving.

As we were leaving, the sun was high overhead, giving a great view from our cabin…

… and gorgeously deepened the ocean blue.