Following in the Footsteps

Sunday 3rd March – Day 2 on South Georgia Today we visited Fortuna Bay and Stromness. Some hiked the Shackelton Way to arrive in Stromness (more below).

Fortuna Bay: A large group of fur seals, many of them pups, greeted us at the landing site. A few meters away was a large group of King Penguins who had wandered from the colony about half mile away. The colony gave us the opportunity to see all stages of King Penguin life, including adult males and females, some mating, others incubating eggs, year old chicks And all the while, the skuas attacking, preying on vulnerable eggs and chicks (see Gallery). Our guides estimated between 7-8 thousand breeding pairs here. It was one of the wildlife highlights so far. One would not have been surprised to see David Attenborough appear from within the middle of the colony, cameraman in tow.

Pictures are posted that describe this scene better than I could. Unfortunately, technology prevents us from sharing the smell.

The Shackleton Way: The hike retraces the last 6km approx of the route it is believed Shackleton, Crean and Worsley followed after landing at South Georgia in search of help to rescue the men left on Elephant Island. Eventually, they reached Stromness Whaling station on May 20th 1916. The island crossing took them almost 36 hours. The island interior had not been surveyed so they had no map and were guessing their route. Mountains rise to 2,700m straight from the sea with glaciers and glacial valleys everywhere so the difficulties Shackleton faced were immense. At one point Tom Crean strode out across the snow covered teraain only to find that he has strayed onto a frozen snow-covered lake. The ice couldn’t bear his weight and he fell into the freezing waters. But Crean was tough and he survived. The lake today is called called Crean Lake and we passed above it during our walk (See Gallery). The highest point on our trek was 300m above sea level. From this vantage point, we could first see Stromness at the same point from which it is thought likely Shackelton and his men first saw it (picture also in Gallery).

The weather was good again, temp 2c, although as always wind chill lowers this dramatically. We had been warned the hike could be called off at any time as the weather changes so quickly here and the area is prone to katabatic winds. The walk ended in a glacial valley that brought us to the disused whaling station at Stromness. Sadly, the station is out of bounds to visitors due to the risk of asbestos in the decaying buildings.