Two Days in the Kingdom of the King

We reached South Georgia during the night so that we could start with our first landing of the day very early in the morning. South Georgia is a small half moon shaped island, 170 km long and only 2 to 40km wide. The Allerdyce- and Salvesen mountain ranges with up to about 3000m in altitude divide the island in a very cold and icy south west coast and a warmer, sunnier and drier north east coast with deep fjord systems and large areas covered with tussoc grass. 

The island lies very isolated in the South Atlantic, at a distance of 550 km to the South Sandwich Islands, 1030km to the South Orkneys, 1450 km to Stanley on the Falkland Islands and 2050km to Cape Horn. Even though the island is so tiny, it is very important for many kinds of wildlife.

South Georgia lies south of the Antarctic Convergence and into the Antarctic Ocean; but the flora and fauna is typical of the sub-Antarctic. Enormous numbers of Elephant seals and Fur seals, millions of penguins and other sea birds are breeding between the green Tussock grass on the long beaches of South Georgia. 

The island in the “middle of nowhere” is one of the most important wildlife refuges on earth. It is an unbelievable and unforgettable feeling to stand next to a huge Elephant seal bull or watch the just born pups with their mothers. Nobody stays without feelings when the King Penguin chicks in their brown and fluffy down mantles come nearer and nearer to figure out what kind of human penguin came for a short visit!

Even though the weather has not been the very best, and we had special problems with a huge swell at our landing side in Fortuna Bay, our expedition team worked very hard to give everybody the chance to go ashore. And it worked!

Our hikers could stretch their legs on different hikes. One group went on the so called Shackleton Hike from Fortuna Bay to Strømness. The next morning another group went from Maiviken to Grytviken. Even though the weather was not the best, everybody enjoyed the nature and scenary.

But South Georgia has also its own history and this is strongly connected with the hunting of Fur seals and Elephant seals and whaling in the southern ocean. We got a very good impression of this terrible time for the fauna in South Georgia as we visited two of the old whaling stations, Grytviken and Strømness. Some Passengers even went on a historical cruise with our Polarcirkel boats to learn more about this time.

As we have seen already several whales during our trip, even a Blue Whale,

we have been all full of hope that the different whale populations will more and more recover in the future. That the Fur seals and Elephant seals have recovered already we could see quite well during all our landings, as they were all over the landing sites, sometimes even a bit too near.

Now we are looking forward to the Antarctic Peninsula. A huge tabular iceberg with a length of app. 30 km at the southern tip of South Georgia gave us a first impression what we will see perhaps when we will reach the Peninsula in two days.

North Scotia Sea

We left the beautiful Falkland Islands two days ago and have been sailing in the featureless Scotia Sea since then. The crossing to South Georgia from the Falklands can be miserable with winds and rough seas. However, our trip has been unusually comfortable- not flat calm but almost so.

With little wind, the petrels (sensu lato, including the albatrosses etc) were not so common but we had Giant Petrels and Cape Petrels with us virtually all the time.

Today we passed the Shag Rocks, a remote set of six closely packed islands in the middle of nowhere. They are covered in breeding shags or cormorants and are also home to Wandering Albatrosses. Just before, our ship photographer, Esther made a presentation on the incredible migration of Arctic Terns from the Arctic to the Antarctica (much like the Fram does every year!). While in China, she explained that she built an Arctic Tern kite under the instruction of a master kite builder. Later in the afternoon she flew the kite on the back deck of Fram.

The waters around the rocks are very productive- the rocks are actually the peaks of submarine mountains joined underwater to the western point of South Georgia. As the ocean currents pass by, the mountain obstructions create mixing and upwelling. This brings nutrients to the surface where the plants of the ocean can grow in the light (the euphotic zone). Approaching the rocks we saw our first Snow Petrels of the trip- a real highlight! These are incredible, all-white birds, which breed on cliffs surrounding Antarctica and even on slopes surrounded by icefields (nunataks). A very common sighting today were many groups of fur seals resting, playing and porpoising around us. 

So you see, even in the middle of the ocean we find many things to keep our interest.

The Capital!

After a wonderful day out on the “camp” we arrived this morning to the comparatively bustling metropolis, and Falklands capital, Stanley. OK, this is an exaggeration but over half the people living in these islands, live in Stanley and reports are that the impending oil industry is creating quite an economic boom.

Stanley "suburbs"

As we approached Stanley, some Commerson’s Dolphins approached the Fram to welcome us!

Commerson's Dolphins

Once docked our activities began with excursions to the town (history focus), a local nature walk, a birding tour, to Bluff Cove, and even a scenic air tour. Almost all on board took advantage of one of these great opportunities. After all, how often do you get to the Falkland Islands?!

This is spring in the southern hemisphere and the many blossoms and singing birds really told the tale of this most wonderful time of year. On the nature walk and birdwatching tour we saw several species of birds. For some we were afforded great, close views.

Speckled Teal

Silvery Grebe

Long-tailed Meadowlark male with food for his chicks

Many wildflowers were in bloom and the Balsam Bog was very green! This plant is very curious. It looks like a soft moss, but is in fact very hard to the touch. It's a member of the carrot family.

Balsam Bog- Bolax gummifera

The town tour focussed on the rich history of this place and included the war memorial, cathedral and museum.

At Bluff Cove, we were welcomed by the rangers who gave us an introductory talk about the site, including details of the local Gentoo and King Penguin colony. After the colony visit we were treated to a very British morning tea!

Teatime at Bluff Cove

King Penguin on the beach

After the morning excursions, most took advantage of the free time to explore Stanley before we sailed at 1600h. We now have two sea-days before we reach South Georgia!

Birds galore!

Your faithful blogger is a bird nut so today, with no apologies we are going to feature some birds we saw during our first landing in the Falkland Islands- New Island. And what better place to do this?! The Falkland Islands is “crawling” with birds and New Island is especially so. It is a nature sanctuary, and a variety of management practices are in place to bring the island back to its natural Falkland state. It will take a while but it will happen.

But first, a few details about our day. We were due to land at West Point Island in the northwest part of the Falklands, in the early afternoon. However, very strong winds would have prevented a landing so we detoured farther south to our "plan B" of New Island. Winds were still strong when we arrived but they were blowing off the land and a visit to this marvellous place was possible. Our target was a seabird colony which was a short hike across a narrow portion of the island. Some of us, however, made a hike up a nearby mountain before visiting the colony.

After 5 days at sea being on dry land is such a treat, especially when you can stretch your legs on a hike. And this was our first landing too so there was lots of excitement using our Polarcirkel boats.

For our mountain hikers shown here, the view from the top was truly spectacular!

Those hiking to the colony were treated with various species of birds along the way, and then the icing on the cake- breeding Rockhopper Penguins, King Shags and Black-browed Albatrosses. I hope these images give you a flavour of the place and in particular impress upon you how important for wildlife New Island is.

Rockhopper Penguin pair

Black-browed Albatross coming in for landing

King Shag

Rock Shag

Long-tailed Meadowlark

Ruddy-headed Geese

Crested Duck

Female Upland Goose

A pair of breeding Striated Caracaras

Dark-faced Ground-Tyrant feeding chicks