St. Andrews Bay, South Georgia

After we visited this fantastic site, our cruise leader asked in the daily debriefing, “Did you feel like you were in a BBC documentary? Well, you were!” Sir David Attenborough visited this place, and the opening of the Frozen Planet 2 series was this picture (!) -

But I’m getting ahead of myself… We were awakened at 0500, to begin disembarkation at 0530 (sunrise was at 0400)…

… a bit of scale with the Zodiac – note all the little flecks on the beach – that’s thousands upon thousands of King Penguins –

What a glorious welcome!

This Giant Petrel looks almost prehistoric, and you can see why his family of birds are called “tube noses”:

St. Andrews is home to the largest colony of King Penguins on South Georgia, with an estimated 150,000 pairs! First, a panorama…

…then a video, to share the symphony that is St. Andrews – (note - open this in a browser by clicking the link at the bottom of the email)

I really liked the brown “river”…

… and this is what it is made of – hundreds of chicks -

We didn’t get close to this glacier, so I was glad to have my long lens.

This made me want to sing,”The hills are alive, with the sound of (penguins)” -

You can see the ground is covered with feathers, which the penguins have been shedding during their moult –

This one was taking a nap all by himself…

… while these Elephant Seal pups seemed to prefer a group nap –

These colors were truly brilliant –

I couldn’t stop taking vista photos, as well –

Now, back to the beach. As we came ashore (like this crowd)…

… we were treated to (literally) tons of Elephant Seals –

I spent a lot of time at the end of our visit, on the beach, to try and document the activity. First, the promised Elephant Seal. (these animals really must be the model for Jabba the Hut of Star Wars fame) –

Going out to hunt…

Warming up with a fully belly –

Walking is hard sometimes…

What a glorious visit! -