Gold Harbor had a large rocky beach filled with Elephant Seals looking for romance and some Fur Seals. Just inland of the beach were tens of thousands of the strange fuzzy brown juvenile King Penguins along with their more majestic looking parents. A short hike from the beach was the Bertrab hanging glacier that a group of us walked to for a closer view of the glacier. The view of the glacier was impressive and the glacier was making lots of creaking and cracking noises as the day warmed up, so we hoped to see the glacier calving, but luck wasn’t with us and we had to settle for just enjoying the view.

King Penguins

On the hike to the glacier we passed a Gentoo Penguen colony. Some of the gentoos were setting on eggs and a few already have hatched.

Bertrab Glacier

Panorama from a hill overlooking the beach at Gold Harbor

King Penguin

After we returned to the Polar Pioneer for Lunch the ship sailed to Cooper Bay so that we could make a quick landing on shore to see a colony of Macaroni Penguins. That was followed by a short Zodiac cruise around the area.

Macaroni Penguins in Love

I told the pilot of our Zodiac that I was pretty sure we could make it through the rocks if he timed it right, but I couldn't get him to go for it.

Chinstrap Penguin

The last location for the day was sailing the Polar Pioneer down the Drygalski Fjord. The fjord was lined with towering cliffs and glaciers.

Panorama of the Polar Pioneer at the end of Drygalski Fjord

Juvenile King Cormorant

After the Zodiac cruise everyone ate breakfast while the Polar Pioneer moved to our next location for the day, Prion Island, a nesting area for Wandering Albatrosses. We spent a couple of hours there before heading back to the ship for lunch.

Juvenile Wandering Albatross

Brown Skua

While we were eating lunch the Polar Pioneer moved a short distance to our third location for the day, Salisbury Plain, the largest area of flat land on South Georgia Island and home to tens of thousands of King Penguins.

King Penguins everywhere

The King Penguins sometimes had a scary commute to get to the ocean to feed.

King Penguin emerging safely from the surf

Not everyone makes it out of the ocean fully intact

Panorama of the tens of thousands of King Penguins on Salisbury Plain

Wishing of wings that work

Cute Couple

The hike up the mountain to the pass was a bit of work, but coming down the other side was made easy because there was still enough snow on that side of the mountain that we were able to do a bum slide down, which was fun, but made me wish I had brought my skis.

The group starting out on our hike, the Polar Pioneer in the background

The final destination of our hike was the abandoned Stromness whaling station.

Panorama of the abandoned Stromness whaling station

Gentoo Penguin in front of Stromness

Run Forrest, Run...wait, that's not right. Run, Little Gentoo, Run!

In the afternoon the ship changed locations to Grytviken (Swedish for “The Pot Cove”), another abandoned whaling station, but now the main settlement on South Georgia for the small group of British government officers, administration and researchers that live there. Grytviken didn’t have a lot of wildlife, only a few Elephant Seals, some Far Seals and a few scattered King Penguins. What made Grytviken interesting was being able to explore the hulking, rusting machinery from the abandoned whaling station.

Rusting Machinery

Not everything is abandoned at Grytviken

What makes the South Georgia Islands interesting is the rugged landscapes, huge glaciers and large amounts of bird and marine wildlife.

Our first stop at South Georgia was Elsehul (Norwegian for Else Cove). After breakfast we boarded the Zodiacs for several hours of cruising around the cove take photos of the impressive landscapes and wildlife.

South Georgia Island

Best Buds

Fur Seal

This guy had been fighting with another Fur Seal

We returned to the Polar Pioneer for lunch and so that the ship could move to our second location for the day, Right Whale Bay. At this location we went ashore at Binder Beach and we able to spend several hours photographing a large colony of King Penguins along with Elephant Seals and Fur Seals.

Thousands of King Penguins at Binder Beach in Right Whale Bay

Juvenile King Penguin looking for his lunch.

Regal King Penguin

As we were ashore the weather started to turn for the worse with howling winds and snow, so as amazing as it was, it was good to return to the warmth of the ship at the end of the day.

Bleaker Island had a cove that provided shelter from the larger ocean waves and made taking the Zodiacs ashore fairly easy. Making it even easier was that there was a small sheep farm on the island and we were able to land the Zodiacs at the small pier for the farm.

Once on Bleaker Island we were able to wander around and explore. The first interesting thing I found was a large colonies of King Cormorains.

A Skua looking for tasty King Cormorant eggs

King Cormorant

Then I spend some time taking photos and videos of the funny little Rockhopper Penguins that make their nests on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. I got to see the food chain in action when a sea lion attacked and ate one of the Rockhoppers in the surf below the cliff I was on. Unfortunately my photos of the attack were not very good.

Rockhopper Penguins

After the Rockhoppers I was wandering around when I noticed that I was being watching from a small hole in the ground. On looking a little closer I realized it was the strange Magellanic Penguin that builds tunnels in the ground to nest in. I’ve always thought of penguins in the snow and ice, so it’s a bit strange seeing penguins digging holes in the grass like a rabbit.

Magellanic Penguin