St. Andrews and Grytiviken
We started out the day bright and early at one of the most magical places on Earth, St. Andrews Bay. We were amazed at the sight of over half a million King penguins at South Georgia’s largest penguin colony.
The beach was full of fur seal pups of the year chasing each other around in the newly fallen snow. We slowly walked up to the edge of the massive colony and were overwhelmed by the incredible volume of noise from all the activity. There were adults sitting on eggs and even glimpses of newly hatched chicks. We had the whole morning to just sit and experience this wildlife paradise.
In the afternoon we sailed into Cumberland Bay and went ashore at Grytiviken. First we visited the whaler’s cemetery and toasted “the Boss,” Sir Ernest Shackleton, who is buried there. Then we had the chance to join Sarah Lurcock from the South Georgia whaling museum for a tour of the remains of the old whaling station and the wonderful whaling museum.
It was a beautiful afternoon so a group of hikers headed up over the hills behind the whaling station for a good leg stretch to Mikiviken. In the evening we invited some of the government officials and British Antarctic Survey scientists to tell us about life and the research programs at King Edward Point. South Georgia is a wildlife paradise and today we got to experience its many wonders.
