Dancing Mad God

Our farewell to South Georgia was made at St Andrews Bay. The expedition team kept us on the edge of our seats waiting to find out whether we would be able to land (it was their first landing at this site), and we were very happy to get the go-ahead.

We weren’t the first to arrive, however: the boat in front of the Cook Glacier here was carrying a group of wildlife photographers, one fashion photographer, and one model. I don’t know how many layers she was wearing.

As soon as we landed, it was clear that this was a special place. The female Elephant Seals were very curious, climbing all over the equipment and, in some cases, trying to get up people’s legs:

When they weren’t piled on top of our bags, they were piled on top of each other:

On this beach there were several bulls still in residence. Sexual dimorphism among Elephant Seals is extreme: the males can weigh up to four tonnes, approximately four times the size of the females, who have a lot to put up with:

Social life sometimes appeared bad-tempered:

Sometimes more relaxed:

A German tourist managed to find some penguins:

Some of the kings were courting:

Some were out on business:

While others showed us how to keep the Fur Seals in line: make yourself big, and show no fear.    

Our path took us across a couple of rivers, which moulting penguins in particular used to regulate their temperature:

The main difficulty in crossing was picking one’s way between the soulful seals:

The penguin and seal colonies support a whole range of predators and parasites, among whom skuas are prominent:

After dining, one needs to wash off the blood:  

After the rivers and a short climb, we were rewarded with the sight of a penguin sea: approximately half a million birds, all told:

Our last day at South Georgia began at Grytviken, the “capital”: an old whaling station, which has been cleaned up enough for visitors to wander around, plus a nearby British Antarctic Survey post.

Most of the time, of course, it’s not humans who are doing the wandering around:

Elephant seals find the elephant-seal-shaped pipes accommodating:

I had expected seal pups to be fiercely guarded by their mothers, but most in fact seem to be left to their own devices. Family photos are relatively rare:

Also in residence are Antarctic Terns, which found something tasty in the kelp beds:

In the afternoon, we parked at Stromness, which is a bit more mountainous that the original on Orkney:

Like Grytviken (the following day’s stop), this is a whaling and Shackleton history site: this is where he came down to the whaling station after hiking from the opposite coast, and started to arrange the rescue of the men left on Elephant Island.

The station is off-limits to humans, but not to the locals:

Further back from the coast are soft moorlands, before the real mountains begin. Here Fur Seals practice guarding their as-yet imaginary harems:

And Gentoo Penguins hike up to their colony:

At South Georgia, the ship started to receive visits from Snowy Sheathbills:

The red stains are blood, and the green is penguin poo, which gives you an idea of their diet:

Fascinating fact #1: the sheathbill is the only Antarctic bird without webbed feet.

Fascinating fact #2: when constricted, a King Penguin’s pupil is square:

Many of the kings here were cooling down by bathing their feet in the streams which run off the glacier:

But the chicks, in their non-waterproof feathers, looked rather bedraggled in the cold and wet:

Elephant Seals showed their range of facial expressions:

While the Fur Seals were in fighting form, both females:

and males:

Meanwhile, the little monsters bide their time:        

After a couple of days at sea, we woke up to a rare, mostly-sunny day at South Georgia. The chance to see this island was one of the main reasons we’d booked this particular trip, and we were lucky enough to get an extra day here because the ice kept us away from the South Orkneys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye6pu_5Ubwo

One of the glaciers turned out to be made not of ice, but of King Penguins:

Because of the slightly rough sea, only a few of the passengers actually managed to land. Soon the lucky few of us were mingling:

The most laid-back residents were the elephant seals. This was their gestation and moulting period, so the males were mostly out at sea, while the ladies could air their bellies:

And exfoliate:

The fur seals were decidedly less mellow. The older males spent most of their time guarding their turf:

While the “teenage” males were decidedly frisky. They’re feisty, have long sharp teeth laced with lurgy, and can run faster than humans by bringing their rear flippers forwards, so it was reassuring to have the expedition team to guide us through them:

The stars of this landing were undoubtedly the kings, however:

On closer inspection, the colony was divided into areas populated by adults, and separate creches for the chicks:

And producing balls of brown fluff is what this colony is all about:

The king reproductive cycle takes more than a year, so at any one time there are always birds at different stages in the process in the colony. As they reach adulthood, the down is gradually  replaced:

Many of the birds in the colony are non-breeders, either because they are between reproductive cycles or because they are too young to breed. The colony is still a fine place to socialise and preen, however: 

The birds go through an energy-intensive moulting before they start breeding:

Then it’s time to start some lovin’….