Those not confined to their cabin due to COVID-19 enjoyed a very busy two-and-a-half day crossing of the Scotia Sea from Point Wild to South Georgia. Activities include bridge tours, lectures and a special screening of Happy Feet.

Even the pair of us in quarantine took part in the most important job: meticulously cleaning all of our clothing and gear that would be going ashore at South Georgia. Our cabin attendant, Liza, dropped a bio-security cleaning kit outside our door, knocked and hurried away before I had time to don a mask and get to the door. Contents included instructions, tweezers, a magnifying glass and stiff-bristled brushes.

Later in the day, one of the expedition staff donned a mask and entered our cabin to make sure we’d done a thorough job. The expedition staff also carefully cleaned all kayaks, trekking poles, tarps and other gear that would be going ashore.

Why so much time and energy on bio-security? Unfortunately, H5N1 avian influenza has reached South Georgia. This is due to natural migratory patterns. South Georgia has had remarkable success eradicating introduced species from those islands, so they are experts in bio-security. Several landing sites were closed, to eliminate any chance of humans accidentally furthering transmission of the disease. For those landing sites open on any given day, very strict protocols are in place. All equipment and passengers had to pass inspection by South Georgian officials.

Ship Cruise – Drygalski Fjord

After a relatively smooth crossing of the Scotia Sea, the weather took a bit of a turn for the worse as we approached South Georgia. Our expedition leader conferred with the ship’s Captain before opting for a shipboard exploration of Drygalski Fjord as our introduction to the British Overseas Territory.

Approximately 14 km long, the fjord sits above an important geological faultline – the mountains on the southern side are basalt and lava from underwater volcanic activity, while the northern shore is part of the ancient edge of the Gondwana continent, and some of the oldest rocks in the Southern Ocean. At the head of the fjord, glaciers cover the landscape, with the Risting Glacier looking particularly impressive as it slowly pours into the head of the fjord.

One thing that struck me, particularly at the mouth to the fjord, is that there’s green in South Georgia! Tussock grasses, mosses and lichens provided a richness of colour that was a welcome sight after several days of mostly black and white Antarctica. Another observation? We saw very little wildlife on this aboard ship excursion. I remember a couple of seabird flybys, including a Snow Petrel, but that’s about it.

Enroute to the site of our afternoon expedition, we continued to enjoy multiple sightings of massive icebergs.

Sea Kayaking – Cooper Bay

We had a choice of zodiac cruise or sea kayaking our first afternoon in South Georgia. We opted for sea kayaking. (NOTE – we registered for sea kayaking months in advance for the cruise, and paid extra for this option.) It was the first and only launch from the ship / return via Zodiac for the sea kayaking group. The Zodiac return was necessary because of VERY strong currents moving out of the bay to the ocean and we would have had to cross a lot of open water to paddle back to the ship.

Paddling along the curved shoreline, we got close-up looks at Fur seals, Southern Elephant seals, King penguins and punk-rocker looking Macaroni penguins! There were masses of Southern Giant Petrels (many feeding on other sea birds, presumably dead of avian flu). Several passengers, including Mr GeoK, noticed deceased seals, also presumably of avian flu.

As for me, I was too busy paddling and trying to keep us off the rocks in the ever-stronger waves while Mr GeoK took photographs. This was the only sea kayak outing when we bickered, just a little. I needed (wanted?) another paddle working to help us stay off the rocks, while Mr GeoK was freezing his hands trying to get good photos of the Macaroni penguins! After we nudged the rocks a couple of times without consequence, I finally relaxed a bit.

We opted for sea kayaking. It’s a good thing! That turned out to be our only sea kayaking opportunity in South Georgia. In fact, it turned out to be our last sea kayaking opportunity for the rest of the cruise.

Zodiac Landing and Hike – Godthul Bay

The weather wasn’t great as we approached Godthul Bay. Swell had set in overnight off the South Georgia coast, and 40 knot winds didn’t help. Fortunately, the natural harbor was sheltered from the swell. And the surrounding hills drastically reduced the wind.

This was our first landing on a beach with large numbers of fur and elephant seals. We’d been been briefed on how to walk safely among seals. And a few expedition staff members “held the line” for us passengers.

The beach was narrow, and we were soon climbing up a fairly steep hill mounded with tussock grass. Expedition staff were on hand to guide us around bird nests and creek drainages. It was hard going, as the tussocks each create their own mound, sometimes more than 45 cm tall, and you can accidentally step into the void between them.

The top of the hill opened onto an elevated amphitheater, with a couple of waterfalls, a large tarn and several ponds. We spotted dandelions! Also nesting skuas, petrels and Gentoo penguins.

We spotted a family of yellow-billed pintail ducks (only found in South Georgia). On the flip side, we completely missed the South Georgia pipits at this (and every other South Georgia) landing sight.

All-to-soon, expedition staff were herding us back down the hill, where we re-boarded Zodiacs in groups of 10 or so. After a short Zodiac cruise along the shoreline to view more penguins and another waterfall, we were back aboard the Greg Mortimer – just in time for lunch!

Zodiac Landing and Hike – Fortuna Bay

Landing at Fortuna Bay and walking among the King penguins is near the top of my highlights list for this cruise. We had low/no expectations of seeing penguin chicks in November/December, because it’s so early in the season. BUT, because King penguin chicks take 14-16 months to fledge (in other words, leave the nest), we saw LOTS of HUGE, brown fluffball King penguin chicks in South Georgia. 🙂

We had pretty bad weather for this excursion. With 50 knot winds and snow turning to sleet and ice, it’s a minor miracle our expedition leader gave the go ahead for landing.

Like the morning landing at Godthul Bay, fur and elephants seals greeted us. But this beach was wider. So there were more expedition staffers holding the line against the seals. Don’t worry, the hiking poles never made contact with the seals. They were simply a precaution. Behaving calmly, staying out of any particular seal’s territory, making yourself appear larger than life and talking quietly to the seals were the keys to making it across the beach without causing any stress to the seals.

One thing that surprised me here was how far away from the shoreline seals go. We were still walking past seals many hundreds of meters inland.

Did I mention the weather was not great? In addition to base layers, mid-layers, warm layers and waterproof outer layers, we definitely needed hats and mitts for this expedition.

King Penguin Colony

But the mass of King penguins (approximately 12,000) was worth braving the weather. I came away with the impression that South Georgia is the Serengeti of Antarctica! We observed marching penguins, dancing penguins, courting penguins, molting penguins, feeding penguins – simply a mass of penguins!

Of course there were other birds, too. Skuas, flying over in search of eggs or scavenging. And another yellow-billed pintail duck.

I am deeply grateful for this amazing experience.

Ship Cruise – Moraine Fjord in Cumberland East Bay

Our third day in South Georgia, and government officials were expecting us in Grytvikin for our official bio-security and immigration inspections. We woke to beautiful blue skies, but with winds gusting up to 65 knots, zodiac transfers to/from the ship were too dangerous. Hoping for calmer conditions in the afternoon, our expedition leader and ship’s captain opted to cruise Moraine Fjord in Cumberland East Bay, relatively sheltered by mountains on either side.

This was a stunningly beautiful location: snow-covered mountains, a mix of cloud formations, a patchwork of brash, growlers, bergy bits and icebergs floating on turquoise water. And at the head of the fjord, Nordenskjold Glacier and clouds on and around a triangular mountain peak. At times, it looked like a pen and ink drawing. These photos don’t really do it justice.

Some of the clouds that caught my attention (click any photograph to enlarge):

Iceberg details (click any photograph to enlarge):

I kept walking around and around on deck, not wanting to miss a single thing. One last look back as we sailed towards Grytvikin:

Out and About in Grytviken

We succeeded in our second approach to King Edward Cove and Grytviken. The winds were much calmer. As we passengers enjoyed lunch, our expedition leader welcomed our biosecurity and immigration inspector aboard. They stamped our passports! And we passed our biosecurity inspection with no deductions. So we were all welcomed ashore for an afternoon in Grytviken.

A once-bustling whaling station, Grytviken is now an Area of Special Tourist Interest. The whale processing facility is fairly intact. And the manager’s home is now the South Georgia Museum.

The original wooden Norwegian Anglican Church is very well maintained.

Many expedition cruise ships stop here so that passengers can pay their respects at Ernest Shackleton’s grave. The ashes of Frank Wild are buried in the same small cemetery.

There’s also a small post office and shop, where we sent postcards to North Carolina and Alberta. They took about 6 weeks to arrive. Now this time frame included Christmas, which tends to slow snail mail even more than usual. But even so, we suspect the postcards went from South Georgia to the UK and then on to North America.

And finally, we had the option to hike part of the Maiviken-Grytviken trail, from the church to Lewis Pass. This is a slow and steady climb, which we’d normally rate “easy.” But hiking in muck boots, wearing a heavy expedition coat and PFD amps the difficulty level to “medium.” 😉 NOTE: there’s no where to store these in the townsite while hiking, and our tiny day packs had insufficient capacity to stow them.

For the most part, the trail roughly paralles a creek that’s harnessed for hydro power by the Bore Valley Dam. It’s one of two hydro stations powering parts of Grytviken and the modern living quarters at King Edward Point.

Zodiac Landing and Hike – Stromness

Billed as a triple-header, our last day in South Georgia began with a 3:40 wake up call for passengers. By then, expedition staff had been up long enough to take a couple of zodiacs ashore and check out the hiking route to Shackleton Falls at Stromness. Yikes!

We dressed, double-checked the camera gear we’d organized the evening before and waited for our turn to be called down to the locker room. Deck 4 was the last deck called. So by the time we landed, some of the early groups had Shackleton Falls in sight.

This was another landing on a beach occupied by seals…mostly Antarctic Fur seals, but also some Elephant seals. Our zodiac driver reminded us of the 5 meter rule and the “be Zen” aura we should project while crossing seal country.

Again, I was struck by just how far inland seals will go to find territory.

Unlike Fortuna Bay – where King penguins were the main attraction – there were very few penguins at Stromness. While the cute ones tempted us to linger, we kept moving along. With two more excursions were on the books for later in the day, we’d been admonished that our RTZ (return to zodiac) time was 90 minutes.

Shackleton Walk

And the main objective? Roughly following Shackleton Walk to the base of Shackleton Falls, and back, for a total distance of maybe 3 km. Stromness was the end goal for Ernest Shackleton, Tom Crean and Frank Worsley when they left the rest of the Endurance crew behind on Elephant Island and made the arduous sea voyage to South Georgia in the lifeboat James Caird.

Unfortunately, they landed in the wrong bay and had to trek across a mountain range to reach Stromness. Some 36 hours after landing, they’d made the crossing, descended near the waterfall and approached the Stromness administration centre.

I tried to keep all of that in mind as we hiked, once again, in muck boots, expedition jackets and PFDs. By the time we reached the base of the falls, many passengers were making the return trek, with their own 90 minute hard deadline in mind.

We took several minutes to be sure we came away with some decent photos (despite the tough light conditions).

We may even have clocked a few cardio minutes on the trek back. Mostly to allow for a few more photo stops.

Stromness Whaling Station

Once aboard our zodiac, we had just enough time for a short cruise along the shoreline, past the slowly decaying Stromness whaling station, closed in the 1960s.

Zodiac Cruise – Salisbury Plain

Back on board after our hike to Shackleton Falls, passengers refueled with a late breakfast while the ship’s crew moved us to Salisbury Plain. Stronger than forecast winds forced a last-minute cancellation of sea kayaking. So we joined the other planned activity – a zodiac cruise along the shore at Salisbury Plain.

We knew it was going to be wet because we’d been up on deck while the ship was underway. Mr GeoK took his biggest lens up to deck 7, where he got some great telephoto shots of the massive King penguin colony (estimated up to 60,000 breeding pairs).

Yep, it was very wet. Rain poured down, wind whipped spray into the zodiacs and the waves grew higher every few minutes.

Nonetheless, the other passengers in our zodiac were determined to observe the King penguins, Antarctic Fur seals and Southern Elephant seals for as long as possible.

After our second cruise along the beach, our zodiac driver asked how everyone was doing. She received an almost unanimous thumbs up in response. During the cruise back the other way, she asked again. Almost everyone nodded they were keen to stay on the water. By our fourth pass, Mr GeoK had stowed away his camera gear and was hunkered down with his mittened hands in his pockets, trying to stay warm. I heard him mutter that he was “ready to return to ship any time.”

We turned about for our fifth pass. About then I spoke up. “Okay, I’ll say it. No one else is saying it. I’m cold and ready to return to boat any time.” Right about then, the ship radio’d all zodiac drivers with instructions to return to ship. The anchor was at 9 shackles out of 10, and we needed to be ready to lift anchor soon. Since our zodiac driver had already turned towards the ship, we were second to queue up to reboard.

After that “sporty” zodiac excursion, it was time for lunch. Over lunch, our expedition leader announced that the afternoon’s planned actvities at Albatross Island were cancelled on account of the weather.

Instead, we’d be heading over the sea to the Falkland Islands / las Malvinas. And because of a massive storm system, we’d use every minute of the extra time to swing wide to the easy, hoping to avoid the worst of the weather system.

So we bid an unceremonious farewell to South Georgia. Our time there was amazing. We would definitely consider a return visit to what I can only describe as the Serengeti of Antarctica.

Stayed tuned for Part III – Falklands/Malvinas. And then a final post covering the ship and the onboard amenities and experience. ICYMI, Part 1 – Antarctica, can be found here.