Personal South Georgia

We have been in South Georgia for the last few days. I had no idea. No-one

ever told me. Did you know? This is one of the most beautiful places I have

ever been. Possibly the most,- but then, how to rank? Mountains. Mountains,

huge and white, loomimg, soaring out of the ocean, blue and cold. It sounds

so simple but it is breathtaking, I don’t have the words or capability I’m

afraid, to explain it better. This is where Shackleton came to search for

help after a year and a half of being stranded on a floating ice shelf. You

know the story. And at the very end, the bit with the best bumslide in

history, it says ‘they landed on the wrong side and so had to climb across

S. Georgia to get to the whaling station’. They didn’t say how huge and

impossible and breathtaking a hike that would be. Or that no-one has ever

managed to repeat it. Forget the miraculous journey that got them this far,

I don’t care what you say, Shackleton was a hero. On the back of his grave

is a quote by Robert Browning:

"I hold…. that a man should strive to the uttermost for his life’s set

prize".

I am in love with the landscape here. Truly, I think I could live here.

And you could even visit me (and I could leave to visit you) as there are

fishing and tourist boats coming and going the whole time (during the

summer). So it’s not that remote. Really.

After an inital stop off at King Edward Point to pick someone up, we went

to the other side of the island, to Bird Island, a "site of special

scientific interest" (SSI) so has restricted access …certainly no access

for cruise ships. It was a real honour to be allowed to visit (we had cargo

to offload and there was some building work to be done too). The smell is

horrible. Really awful. Fur seals. They stink. It’s rank. Beats smelling

salts for waking you up. Yuk. The island, however, is gorgeous. Nesting

albatrosses (wanderers and black-brows), so beautful, peaceful and

enormous. And a penguin colony on the side of a majestic crevasse… with

35000 nesting PAIRS. That is, 80,000 macaroni penguins at the height of the

season. Breathtaking. And no fear of humans. You wouldn’t ofcourse, but you

could, get close enough to touch them. With their funny bright yellow head

embellishment. Amazing. It is said that David Attenborough came here and

said "wow". Praise indeed!

Penguins and albatrosses appear unthreatened by humans which is more than

can be said for the fur seals. Territorial. And so many of them that it’s

impossible to not be in someone’s territory. So we were armed with sticks

upon arrival. Back on King Edward Point however, there is more space and

are more elephant seals. These ones are beautiful flobbedob creatures with

large round eyes and peaceful mongolian faces. They’re territorial too I

guess but not very scary. The fur seals are scary and bite people. They

look more like city traders with stuck up noses and long chinese emperor

whiskas. In the water, however, they are sleek and beautiful.

Travelling between the two bases was also breathtaking (I need another

word I know. Sorry.) In the water, seals everywhere, playing. And penguins!

Loads of them flying through the air, it’s called ‘porpoising’. They were

porpoising. That’s when they fling themselves in the water and fly upstream

like a skimming stone. So contrary to their land-style. Penguins are the

comedy relief when it all gets a bit too much, too astounding, too

enormous, too, takingawayofbreathlike. Nothing like a comedy penguin to

remind you that you’re still on planet Earth after all.

We also had the amazing opportunity to sail close to the shoreline, past a

number of old Nowegian whaling stations. Like abandoned shanty towns,

rusting and forgotten, falling into the sea. A reminder of days when the

sea around here was very red. And not so long ago either. Discarded towns

hidden in bays defined by glaciers, mountains, wildlife, rock formations,

icy sea.

So that’s where we’ve been, we are in the sub-Antarctic here, the ‘banana

belt’ but are headed back to the colder regions now. First east for a long

way to avoid sea ice and then south-west, crawling in along the coast

towards Halley. Sea ice conditions look great for our purposes and I think

everyone is optimistic that we’ll make it in with good time. I think the

current arrival date is estimated to be around christmas time so the big

festivities may have to wait until New Year after most of the cargo has

been unloaded. Time is still flying by on the ship, much to my astonishment

and enjoyment. I wonder how there can be enough minutes in the day at home

to achieve anything at all! Love to you all. This place has been calling me

for so long and it’s all my dreams coming true. xx