Day 7 - St Andrews Bay, South Georgia
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South Georgia kept the
best till last. Despite a very early start (6:00am), we
had sunshine, blue skies, calm waters and almost no wind.
This bay is also home to the largest penguin colony on the
island and once again, a new landing spot for me. I hadn't
realised that selecting places to land is really difficult
here, but it's clear that our expedition leader got it spot
on today. At times, my fellow travellers were silent, taking
in the sights, the sounds and the smells of the vast colony. |
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My group went ashore
first and later returned to the zodiac for a cruise along
the shore. |
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I think
we disturbed the elephant seals from their Sunday morning slumber.
Well it was only just after 7.00 am, after all! |
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We had
to walk across this fast flowing water to get to the colony.
Luckily, members of the expedition team were on hand to assist us. |
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Looking
back to the place where we had landed. |
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Quite a distance after
we crossed the river, we climbed a hill and there it was.
The huge penguin colony! |
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Zodiacs
cruising in front of the colony. Our group would be doing that later. |
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It was
hard to take in the sheer numbers. Magnificent! |
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I could have stood on
that hill for hours looking across at the colony, but eventually
we had to start walking back to the zodiac landing area
for part two of the excursion. |
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Retracing
our steps back across the river. |
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Edith
and Gregor |
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Close
to the landing embarkation site, the penguins were gathered in numbers
and were very entertaining. |
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Back
on the zodiac for the cruise along the coast in front of the colony. |
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Our zodiac driver, a
member of the ship's team, rather than the expedition team,
gave us an extra ride along the coast instead of taking
us directly back to the ship. |
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Finally
it was time to return to the ship. What an amazing day! |
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This is the route we
followed during our visit to South Georgia over one full
day and two half days. |
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By comparison, this
is the route I followed during my
visit there in November 2018 (link opens in a new tab).
We visited more sites then because we had three full days
in which to do so. |
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