Gold Harbour, South Georgia Island & Sea Days

Hey Everybody!

One more day to explore South Georgia Island before returning to sea for Antarctica....

Everybody [including me] keeps saying how amazing South Georgia is, but our time on the island has been a combination of some disappointment, some bad weather, and much hope that all the South Georgia hype wouldn't let us down. While Salisbury Plain proved unreachable, our early morning group seemed to hit the wildlife jackpot at Gold Harbour!

Gold Harbour was named by somebody hoping to find gold here, but none was ever found. What it lacks in gold, however, it more than makes up for with the Bertrab Glacier hanging above, the huge King Penguin colony, and Elephant Seals. There are Gentoo penguins, sea birds, and some fur seals too....but the Kings and the Elephant Seals made our visit.

Our first view:

 A very young elephant seal about to nurse:

Part of the colony of King Penguins: 

The Super Weaners [it's really what they're called!] - newly weaned elephant seals -  they're huge and hungry, but not yet hungry enough to do more than beg:

These island animals have NO fear of humans. It is an amazing experience to be able to walk among wandering penguins and resting seals. We were most careful when walking near molting King Penguins because that requires so much of their energy that we don't want to disturb them at all. They seemed to molt in small groups away from the big colony. The Elephant Seal Bulls fought occasionally - we kept our distance from them as well, but there was no aggression toward us from any of the animals.

A molting King Penguin:                                 

                                                                   

Islanders....all the brown feathers belong to the 1yr old King Penguins: 

While the timing of my trip made a penguin chick encounter impossible [no babies yet], the super weaners were eager to meet anybody who might be persuaded to feed them [we don't]. It was getting close to the end of our land excursion when this weaner headed my way. I immediately knelt down to meet the seal. It was very playful, sucked on my parka, and used every trick it knew to beg for milk. It never bit me or showed any signs of aggression. The basic rule is keep your distance, but if the seal approaches...enjoy the moment! We were told not to reach for them, but to let them come to us....a handful of seals were happy to oblige us humans. Luckily a couple of people were around and took photos of the encounter.

Once we're back on the ship and headed to the Antarctic Peninsula we have some more rough weather... these next sea days were harder than the Drake Passage. But not so hard that we couldn't manage a snowball fight after nearly 3 days at sea [we expected just two]. Many of us were starting to get a bit antsy for shore landings and, after all, it was snowing.... seems reason enough for a snowball fight. It was guys against girls. The girls definitely won - unless you ask the guys....

Notice that this is a multilevel snowball fight; we were serious competitors! I had two buckets of snowballs ready for the girls in advance, although a mean boy stole one of the buckets. And, to be honest, the first really good snowball hit was to my face [at least it wasn't with one of my own snowballs].

If you look closely, you will see that I am "wearing" snow on my left side [that was from the first hit to my face] and my sandals. My barefoot snowball fight only lasted the first few rounds, but when I could no longer feel my toes I went inside for wool socks. I was not the only competitor under dressed... another person had to run inside for gloves about the same time. 

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As always, thanks for stopping by! That's all for now....all of a sudden many of us were counting days until the trip was over when just days ago it seemed we had weeks left. Antarctic Peninsula coming soon!

ps thanks to Jing & Angela for the fight pics!