On route from the Falkland Islands to South Georgia are Shag Rocks inhabited primarily by large numbers of South Georgia shags – the islets isolated and rugged form is a taste to what may lay ahead. Near Shag Rocks, a video clip captures a mesmerizing encounter with an exceptionally large pod of bow-riding Commerson’s dolphins – an activity that’s just purely for fun (and fun to watch) and somewhat unusual for non-domesticated adult mammals.  They are one of the smallest known dolphins in existence today measuring at maturity between 1 to 1.5m. One of the life-changing moments you can possibly experience in nature is to visit one of the super large king penguin colonies on South Georgia.  When approaching the north side of the Island from the east – the first such colony to encounter is found at Salisbury Plain – a broad coastal plain where two large glaciers from the mountain range behind sweep down on the southern coast of the bay – a stunning example of nature’s artistry at its best.  You can never prepare oneself for the encounter!

It is a very warm summer’s day in early February and what a remarkable time to view the different stages of king penguin’s life-cycle at one moment and in one place.  To step on land to the sounds, smell and ambience created by some 250,000 birds is simply breath-taking.   To enter their world is such a privilege.  The adults are either frolicking on the beach edge or stand quite still in the main colonies between patches of hardy tussock grass with their backs turned to the sun.  The younger adults gather into groups, typically along streams tricking down from the glaciers, undergoing a ‘prenuptial’ molt before breeding themselves. Unlike most birds that molt a few feathers at a time, a penguin’s molt is ‘catastrophic’ shedding all their feathers at once.

The youngest generation, namely the chicks born one or two months ago, group together in ‘crèches’ for protection against predatory birds and take 14-16 months to fully fledge before venturing into the sea.  At this time the chicks are extremely large and pear-shaped with fluffy brown down but keep cool during what must feel scorching temperatures by standing in water. A king penguins foot should look familiar – they have the DeSmoGlein (DSG) 1 gene linked to humans that causes an abnormal thickening of the skin on the palms and soles. In penguins, this gene may contribute to thicker insulation from the cold. The concentrations of Antarctic fur seals amidst king penguins on Salisbury Plain and elsewhere on South Georgia represent the densest aggregations of marine mammals on earth!

The next stop travelling eastwards along the northern coast is Stromness – one of several whaling stations found on South Georgia – made famous for one particular day back in 1916.  It was during this year, 7am in the morning of 20th May, that Ernest Shackleton with Tom Crean and Frank Worsley heard the whistle that summoned the working day and saw Stromness Whaling Station in the distance as they crossed from one side of South Georgia to the other – they were saved from history’s most heroic polar expedition.  However, there was one last hurdle. It was from this view point, they decided that the only accessible route down was to climb down the nearby waterfall using rope – they succeeded, but not without struggle, and reached the whaling station at 3pm – they were saved!  Subsequently, the waterfall is now revered to as ‘Shackleton’s Waterfall’ in Shackleton Valley.

The tale continues not too far along the coast at Grytviken. Whale catcher boat ‘Petrel’ (built in Oslo, 1928) is beached in Grytviken.  The whaler was one of the first to have a walk-way leading straight from the bridge to the harpoon cannon mounted right in her bows that began the industrial age of whaling.  Grytviken harbor is now surrounded by rusted relics of a vast factory that once processed an enormous number of whales into oil and meat that started in 1904 and lasted about 60 years.  Life was extremely harsh and the work dangerous and difficult.  A ‘vintage look’ has been given to some of the images captured around the derelict and haunting whaling station as they look today! Large chains were used by the whale-catchers to fasten and tow back dead whales to the whaling station.

The tall pressure cookers in a line (or blubber cookery) were for extracting oil from the whale blubber.  Strips of blubber from the flensing plan (where the whales were dragged ashore and cut up) were fed into a rotating cutter at the base of the bucket conveyor and directed to the top of each of the cookers.  The blubber was boiled by blowing in steam until the oil separated out and was then piped to the separator plant for purification. Meat and bone residues were fed into huge cylindrical rotating ovens and dried by hot gases blown in from oil-fuelled furnaces and then crushed into meal.  Meatmeal was used in cattle feed and bonemeal for fertilizer. Beyond the immediate confines of this large cooking pot of a slaughterhouse relative normality was found in a church, grocery store, bakery, accommodation blocks and a football field.

The cemetery found on the outskirt of the settlement is a place of pilgrimage for the many adventurous visitors who wish to reminisce on the ‘heroic age’ of Antarctic exploration.  It is at this sacred place that Sir Ernest Shackleton and his right-hand man Frank Wild are buried.

This 3 part video (as with all pictures in the gallery) were taken in February 2017 where renowned modern-day Expedition Leader to Antarctica – David McGonigal – celebrates the life and times of Shackleton who led the Trans-Antarctica expedition of 1914 to 1917 acknowledged as one of the most incredible adventure stories of all time!

PART 1: The day Sir Ernest Shackleton died on 5 January 1922.

PART 2: What Frank Worsley said when he heard the news of Shackleton’s death.  In 1916, it was Frank Worsley, who with Shackleton and Tom Crean hiked across the mountains of South Georgia to fetch help from Stromness Whaling Station for all those who were left stranded on Elephant Island 1,300 km away off the Antarctica Peninsula.

PART 3: Toasting the ‘Boss’ Sir Ernest Shackleton and close colleague Frank Wild with a splash of whiskey on their headstones.

Surrounding the cemetery is a sanctuary for elephant seals where one was particularly tearful!  A cow elephant seal is also seen undergoing a ‘catastrophic molt’ where the fur sheds in patches with the epidermal skin attached revealing a new dark grey fur underneath.

The last port of call is Gold Harbour supporting yet another mega-colony of king penguins backed by an amphitheatre of hanging glaciers and cliffs.  Towards the southern end of the Island is a sheltered but imposing bay named Drygalsky Fjord.  At the head of the fjord is the Risting Glacier when a momentary sunburst was captured through dramatic skies that appear to produce several (at least 4) circular artifacts or ‘orbs’ – it is probably photographic backscatter but how wonderful would it be if it was some strange sun-cloud phenomena! Rounding the southern extremity of South Georgia to venture south was particularly poignant in leaving one of nature’s great splendors behind in the wake.  It was also the moment and view when the great Captain James Cook in 1775 was “greatly disappointed” in realizing that South Georgia was in fact an island rather than a continent (Antarctica?) and was fittingly named ‘Cape Disappointment’.

Expedition organizers: Steppes Travel Tour with Oceanwide Expeditions