“In the darkening twilight I saw a lone star hover gem like above the bay.” Those beautiful words were Ernest Shackleton’s last entry into his diary the night of the 4th of January 1922. Today was largely taken up with The Boss, as he was known to his men, for a good number of us walked the last few miles of the Shackleton walk; starting in Fortuna Bay and ending at Stromness Whaling Station. The rest of us were either able to walk up to the Shackleton Waterfall or catch glimpses of it from the old whaling station. No matter which activity we undertook we could but marvel at the incredible boat journey that he and five men undertook to reach the island of South Georgia and then three of them were to be the very first people to cross this island. It was an incredible feat and its success meant that the 22 men left on Elephant Island could be rescued.
During the afternoon, we visited Prion Island in the Bay of Isles and in very challenging winds we made our way up the boardwalk, seeing the occasional pipit and pintail up to catch fleeting and faraway glimpses of giant petrels and wandering albatrosses on their breeding grounds. Even though the albatrosses were some way off we were able to appreciate a little more about these incredible long-lived seabirds who have made the Southern Ocean their home.
During the evening, the National Geographic Explorer headed into the shelter of Rosita Harbour for the night.
“In the darkening twilight I saw a lone star hover gem like above the bay.” Those beautiful words were Ernest Shackleton’s last entry into his diary the night of the 4th of January 1922. Today was largely taken up with The Boss, as he was known to his men, for a good number of us walked the last few miles of the Shackleton walk; starting in Fortuna Bay and ending at Stromness Whaling Station. The rest of us were either able to walk up to the Shackleton Waterfall or catch glimpses of it from the old whaling station. No matter which activity we undertook we could but marvel at the incredible boat journey that he and five men undertook to reach the island of South Georgia and then three of them were to be the very first people to cross this island. It was an incredible feat and its success meant that the 22 men left on Elephant Island could be rescued.
During the afternoon, we visited Prion Island in the Bay of Isles and in very challenging winds we made our way up the boardwalk, seeing the occasional pipit and pintail up to catch fleeting and faraway glimpses of giant petrels and wandering albatrosses on their breeding grounds. Even though the albatrosses were some way off we were able to appreciate a little more about these incredible long-lived seabirds who have made the Southern Ocean their home.
During the evening, the National Geographic Explorer headed into the shelter of Rosita Harbour for the night.
