With a late night hanging over me, I failed to rise for our first landing, which was Gold Harbour at 5am. Although I was there in 2006, I was really interested in going as the photo opportunities there are really special. Backed by a huge hanging glacier it is one of the largest king penguin colonies in the world and also has a large selection of big elephant seals and some fur seals.
When I did rise at 7am, the water horizon through my window was bobbing from top to bottom meaning we were at sea, therefore no landings had happened. Earlier they had attempted to bring ashore the first group in worsening swell when the zodiac was broadsided by a wave throwing David Clifford out and pinning him to the beach half submerged. Luckily the situation was short lived and he was ok but all further landings were called off.
Everyone was fairly tired at breakfast from being up early but with Cooper Bay and a chance to see the Colony of many thousands of Macaroni penguins. The conditions were still only so but improving all the time, lets go!! We cruised around the approach to the colony with Berenice and our driver when we got a call form the landing scouts that the fur seals were 1-2 meters apart and at least two females were there with babies. This meant our route to the Macaroni colony was now out of the question as they are much too aggressive now and the route up was only 50 meters across leading to the tussock grass. So, we were bought in as close as possible giving us a good view and some photo chances, it was excellent to get a view of the female fur seals nursing their young as they are some of the first we saw in SG.
Afterwards we sailed to Drygalski Fjord in stunning light and blue skies with massive tabular icebergs caught on the shallow waters of Southern SG. The mood was now ecstatic with a flurry of bodies wrapped up in down and fleece heading up and down stairwells on deck to capture the amazing scenery. The Fjord which is 14km long has with different rock types on each side rising to over 1,000 meters, one I believe on the northern side was once part of the continental margin of Godwana, they are the oldest rocks in SG. The same rock type as Tierra del Fuego over 2,000kms away which is where SG was originally part of before being split and pushed by tectonics east 90 million years ago. Once we arrived at the end, the Risting Glacier was lit by sunshine from above meeting the deep blue waters with vertical ice in various tones and textures some 15-20 meters high.
I had a great chat with Keelan my son who goes to school in the Gaelscoil Faithleann in Deerpark, Killarney. I hope his teacher Muintoir Karen is keeping him busy while I’m away. My other son Rory may hear but probably wont reply as he has just turned one in September. Hi to anyone I know back home if they are following this
Our final moments of this beautiful island were spent admiring once again the huge bergs that seem to gather on and around the shallow waters sometimes up to 5-6 kms off shore, a fantastic end to my 2nd visit to SG.
