The bay was
named Fortuna Bay after Fortuna the first whale-catcher to operate out of
Grytviken in the early 1900’s. Fortuna
Bay is home of a colony of King Penguins of about 7-8,000 breeding pairs,
located about 1 km inland from Whistle Cove our landing site. On the colony at
this time of the year, was possible to observe basically all the breeding stages,
from copulations, eggs, recently hatched chicks to well grown nestlings. Which is a plus for anyone looking into the breeding
biology of this species of penguin. At
this site we were able to see what probably will be our last time to see Reindeer
and penguins together on this island, since the local government is planning to
eradicate the reindeer very soon.
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| Reindeer at Fortuna Bay - Photo: Manuel Marin |
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| A young King Penguin - Photo Manuel Marin |
With great
fortune the weather did accompany us the whole day, and some of us went for a
hike or the so called the Shackleton Walk which is a crossing from Fortuna Bay
to Stromness. Retracing the last bit of
the route that Shackleton, Crean and Worsley hiked before reaching a place with
humans. This is a 5.5 km walk that transverse
some hills trough a mountain pass with a maximum elevation of 300 m.
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| Young seals at Fortuna- Photo: Manuel Marin |
Stromness harbor
that started to operate in 1907 as a whale processing place and about 1931-32
became a ship repair yard for the South Georgia Company.
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| A view to Stromness -Photo: Manuel Marin |
