King Haakon Bay, South Georgia
Early this morning, we entered King Haakon Bay, which offers one of the very few possible landing sites on the southern or windward coastline of the island. It was of special importance to us, because it was here that Ernest Shackleton and five of his men arrived from Elephant Island in the converted James Caird in April of 1916. Initially, they landed on the south side of the bay at Cape Rosa, after a horrendous sea journey covering some 800 miles over 16 days. They soon moved to the north side of the bay and established Peggotty Camp in the lee of a small bluff. From here, Shackleton, Frank Worsley, and Tom Crean hiked across South Georgia’s unknown mountain range to reach the Norwegian Stromness whaling station on the island’s northern or leeward shore. They did it in about 36 hours…an almost unbelievable feat.
We spent the morning in the vicinity of Peggotty Camp, and endured similar fierce winds like what Shackleton’s team had to endure. But, for us it was fun, even though we had to endure wet, splashy Zodiac rides to and from the shore. “Endurance” seems to be the recurring theme here. Once ashore, we organized various hikes and explored the hinterlands. The first group set off in the footsteps of Shackleton and his two companions who trekked across the island to Stromness, but didn’t go very far. Others of us walked through tussock grass over to the exposed shoreline on the other side of Peggotty Bluff, where we found lots of washed up kelp, bones, a southern beech tree trunk that had drifted here all the way from Tierra del Fuego, and a partial wooden mast from some long-lost sailing ship. All pretty neat stuff. It was interesting to note the growing population of fur seals in Haakon Bay, because there were none here just a few years ago. The vegetation was also quite interesting, because we could observe the amazing succession of plant life developing on the rocks that have only recently been uncovered (geologically speaking, that is) after the retreat of local ice fields (Figure A). Lichens obviously start growing first on the exposed rocks, and are followed by mosses (like the lichens, they can also grow on bare rock faces). Next, come the vascular plants, such as tussock grass, hair grass, and burnett, which take root in the moss beds.
After lunch, National Geographic Explorer cruised near Cape Rosa to view the small cove where the exhausted Shackleton party first made landfall at South Georgia after the loss of Endurance the previous year. Captain Kruess brought our ship very close to the historic site, so there was no need for Zodiacs…which was just as well, since the wind had increased since the morning’s outing. We could clearly see the protected little landing site, but couldn’t quite see the famous cave where they rested, because it was just hidden around the corner inside the entrance (Figure B). However, we could see a mated pair of beautiful light-mantled sooty albatrosses and their chick at a nest site on the exposed rock face nearby the cove entrance. Albatrosses, petrels, skuas, terns, and gulls were enjoying the windy conditions and continued to fly all around the vessel as we sailed about in the huge bay. Eventually, we left King Haakon Bay and made our way into the open sea to begin our two-day transit to the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas). And, the birds escorted us all afternoon and evening in sunny conditions, making for some of the best photographic opportunities thus far on the voyage.
