Drygalski Fjord

An early start this morning with a 4 am wake up call, which wasn’t
exactly met with the type of enthusiasm our leaders expected.
Surprisingly almost everyone appears on deck without breakfast to
hopefully go ashore to a large colony of King and Macaroni penguins.
Ominously though I can see large waves breaking on shore and after
waiting patiently on the gangway with our gear and lifejackets on, the
first zodiac returns with a few shook looking passengers. The swell
was very rough as they tried to land and all were suddenly thrown
against the beach with the ex school teacher David, thrown out of the
boat with some force. So our landing was cancelled and it was back to
bed for most of us !

Things improved slightly later on but only just, we now had a very
heavily guarded beach full of aggressive fur seals , so again the
landing was out of the question but a cruise in the Zodiacs was
possible. We climbed aboard with the boat and zodiac rising and
dropping 10 ft, so you really had to watch your step. Near the shore
we now saw the reason for the very aggressive behavior and that was the
female fur seals who have now started to arrive and give birth to cubs
immediately. We get close enough to photograph 2 females and 2 cub
seals, with the male close by guarding his patch, and not performing any
paternal duties.

Getting as close as we could to the rocks, we now finally get to see the
wonderful Macaroni Penguin with their tuft of yellow strands of feathers
on their heads, which apparently resembled an Italian hairstyle of the
day and so were named after it.

Returning to the boat we all now could see the massive ice berg field
ahead of our ships mooring, and the captain gave us a real treat of a
cruise in and around them on the ship. We were making our way to
Drygalski Fjord and the sight of these huge floating slabs of ice was
absolutely awesome.

Drygalski Fjord is located near the southern most tip of South Georgia
and is skillfully navigated by our captain, while everyone is out on
deck in the storm force wind but gorgeous sunshine. We are slowly
nudged to within 200 meters of the face of the glacier at the end of the
fjord and again it’s an awesome sight, it’s a sheltered spot from the
wind and we idle here for half an hour taking in the view. A quick
blast of the ships horn, and a minute or so later, there’s a loud crash
of ice calving from the ice face, set off by the vibrations.

We turn around and head back down the fjord towards the open seas and
Elephant Island. We pass Cape Disappointment , which Captain Cook named
after realising he hadn’t found the Antarctic Continent but an island
instead. The only disappointment for me was that we were now leaving
the magnificent South Georgia behind us and I wonder if I’ll ever get to
come here again.

Back on the open seas for the next two days, so time to catch up on some
sleep, photo editing and for some the odd occasional drink !