This day started early for some of us. Short before 8 am the
hikers went on land at Maiviken. The beach was – once more – packed with fur
seals, but the shore team managed to keep a little passage “free” and 55 happy
hikers set off to walk to Grytviken, a former whaling station on South Georgia.
We walked steep uphill trough tussock grass, passed by the beautiful Crean Lake
and up to the viewpoint. As the wind picked up together with a bit of snow, we
proceeded after a short break down towards the church in Grytviken.
As the
hikers arrived, the other passengers came ashore as well and visited
Shackleton`s & Frank Wild`s grave while walking towards the center of the settlement,
looking for a good route between the fur seals and elephant seals which literally
“plastered” the path to the museum. Two “local” guides from the place gave us a
nice guided tour through the remainings from the station.
In the afternoon we headed for St. Andrews Bay – the biggest
King penguin colony from South Georgia was breeding here, over 200`000 pairs!
Can you imagine? Already from the boat we could see them and note the scent – penguin-smell
was in the air! And for the first time, MS Fram made a landing at St. Andrews
Bay. Thousands of elephant seals were lying around the beach area, mostly
weaners but also some adults which lay close together while they are moulting.
After passing two rivers and up green meadows we stood on the top of a hill and
looked down to – Penguin Heaven! We hardly couldn`t believe what we saw, thousands and thousands of King penguins and their chicks were trumpeting and whistling! Unbelievable…
We just sat, looked and enjoyed. It was hard to leave this
amazing place in the evening, so much to see! The weaners (young elephant seals)
at the landing site didn`t make our leave easy – they were
very interested on the safety gear, cones and flags from the expedition team! But it was
time to go, off to Antarctica, ready for new experiences, seals, penguins and
whatever we might encounter on this beautiful voyage..
