To South Georgia

Tags: King Haakon Bay, Peggotty Bluff, Shag Rocks, South Georgia

Date: December 4, 2022

After three days in the Falkland Islands, the ship sailed in the direction of South Georgia. After two days at sea, we saw our first land: Shag Rocks. A shag is a bird similar to a cormorant and Shag Rocks are full of them. The islands are around 145 nautical miles west of the main island of South Georgia. It was quite foggy as we passed the islands:

Here is a shag:

We started our stay on South Georgia in the historic King Haakon Bay. This is where Shackleton and five other men landed after sailing and rowing around 700 nautical miles from Antarctica in 1916. This was done in late fall of 1916 in a 6.8 meter long lifeboat called James Caird. They landed at a place called Cave Cove and later moved to Peggotty Bluff which is where we went. This is how it looks in springtime:

Our ship:

The head of the bay:

The mouth of the bay:

We saw our first king penguins on the beach:

An elephant seal pup, just a few months old:

The one was very curious about us, but too lazy to turn around:

A big male relaxing in the tussock grass: