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19.02.2016: Day 7 - Salisbury Plain and Prion Island (South Georgia)
Wake up call was at 7-15am and then breakfast 15 minutes later. It was a beautiful sunny day but we put all our waterproof clothing on including a layer of thermals because it was only 5 degrees outside. The crew had never seen this place in such good weather so we were really lucky.
We got onto the zodiacs for a short ride to the beach at Salisbury Plain where the first photo stop was a leopard seal on the beach that kept lifting it's head up for our photos! Of course the main reason for this landing was to see the colony of King penguins - 60,000 breeding pairs.
We had 3 hours and it was difficult to find a path through all the fur seals including lots of babies. We're supposed to keep 5m away minimum but sometimes they approached us and then you had to change course because of other wildlife around including some giant petrels.
One seal came galloping towards Kirsten who put out her hand and said "Stop!" It worked but only for a few seconds and then it came at her again. I was just behind and kept telling her to move back after she'd said "stop". Maybe it was her red waterproofs but the seal certainly looked like it was going to bite her.
We had seen photos of the effects of a seal bite - badly swollen and infected fingers, so it's something to avoid, not to mention punctured waterproofs! She had to put out her hand and say "stop" four times before the seal eventually left us alone and we managed to get far enough away. No video because we were a bit busy!!
The King penguins were really comical as they squelched their way through a patch of mud heading towards the beach and we finally made our way to the far end where the main colony was. It was overwhelming - such a large number in one spot that, from a distance, the whole area looks gold. Some were sitting on eggs, others had baby chicks they were sitting on to keep warm and protected, and a lot of fluffy brown ones that looked fatter than the adults.
Day 7: Salisbury Plain - 360° Panorama
(move mouse over panorama and click on the arrows)
Quite a few were moulting and were at different stages of the process - some looked like they were wearing a brown skirt or jacket and others looked thoroughly bedraggled. The whole thing was an amazing sight.
Landing at Salisbury Plain (South Georgia) - Part 1
We got zodiacs back and there was a queue for cleaning our boots that were caked in mud and poop! Lunch was served right away - chicken and chips - just what we needed. As soon as everyone was on board we set sail for Prion island our next destination.
I just about had enough time to write my diary when it was time to change into waterproofs and we got the first zodiac ride which took approx 15 minutes to get to the landing site on Prion Island. For this part we were split into two groups - we were in group one who went to the island first and then did a zodiac cruise in the bay. Group two did the cruise first and then landed. This is because there is a board walk uphill to see wandering albatross nests and the space is limited.
There were lots of fur seals around and it seems they were happy that a board walk had been built as it made it quicker and easier for them to reach their spots in amongst the tussock grass along the hillside. They galloped off up the various steps in front of us as we were the first group there.
Up at the top we saw about 4 wandering albatross and a fluffy giant petrel chick that was huge already. We went back down to the beach and managed to get past a few fur seals who were a bit aggressive. We saw Gentoo penguins, a few King penguins, elephant seals, South Georgia pintail (duck) and even two South Georgia pipits - a song bird that is endemic to South Georgia and have been returning since the rat problem has been tackled. (We would learn about it the next day.)
After 75 minutes it was our turn to go on a little zodiac cruise around the bay. It wasn't easy to take photos because the zodiac was moving too much but we saw blue eyed cormorants, kelp gulls, skuas, white chinned petrels that look completely black but apparently have a few white hairs on their chins (which you can't see as they fly in the distance so we'll take the drivers word for it),and also a light mantled sooty albatross.
Day 7: Landing at Salisbury Plain - Part 2 and afternoon landing on Prion Island (South Georgia)
After one hour we returned at 5-20pm, cleaned our boots which took a long time and turned our tags. Recap and dinner were put back 30 minutes because some of the divers went on land after their dive and weren't back yet so we had time to grab a piece of chocolate brownie and a cup of tea.
Recap was details about a long walk of 6km (long?) tomorrow which we would have to sign up for after dinner as the walk would start in Fortuna Bay and the ship would then reposition to Stromness Bay to pick us up. We would be following in the footsteps of Ernest Shackleton who made an epic journey across South Georgia on foot to get to a Whaling station where he could get help for his stranded men on Elephant Island in 1916. There were other options for those who wanted a shorter walk or just a landing.
Dinner was tomatoes with avocado, Juniper berry infused Venison fillet served with almond broccoli and Celeriac with potato mash for Kirsten and I had the herb crusted fish on vegetable spaghetti with sauce Romanov and 1.5 strawberry mousse because Kirsten ate half of my extra one! After dinner we signed up for the long walk and found out that there were only 2 spaces left - there had been no mention that the walk would be limited to 60 people!
