my travels in pixels

The whaling station at Stromness Places we stopped in South Georgia Day 9 - March 7, 2020 Stromness Stromness whaling station – no zodiac cruise today, only a land excursion as the winds were a bit strong for any cruising; there were white caps on the waves. I knew there were seals and penguins here but as there was a long walk, I knew I couldn’t carry both cameras. We couldn’t explore the whaling station because it wasn't safe but we could trek to the bottom of the waterfall that Ernest Shackleton had to tackle at the end of his South Georgia expedition. Calling it an expedition sounds like he planned it but it was actually a life or death mission to get help to rescue his men who were stranded on Elephant Island. The waterfall that Shackleton had to climb around to get to the Stromness Whaling station to seek help to rescue his men Supposedly a 40 minute walk one way, but I'm sure it took us all longer It was another early morning and we had quit...

Day 8 - March 6, 2020 Salisbury Plain Fur seals We have four days in South Georgia and this is day two. Another early start to visit a large king penguin colony and fur seals. A landing and zodiac excursion and I was doing the zodiac cruise first. He's not albino, just blonde The main king penguin colony is not that far from the beach and you need to walk through the seal colony. Quark put out witches hats for the path you are supposed to follow but it's easy to get sidetracked and I was told off more than once for forgetting. There was lots of grass for the seals to lie on and thankfully they were spread out and sleepy so didn't try to attack us. Giant Petrels have amazing blue eyes We could go right up to the middle clump of green, about a third of the way into the picture king penguin chick They have to stay on land while they molt once a year check out those nails They remind me ...

Shag Rocks, probably not an official name, but the Shags like them. You can't quite see them flying but they are everywhere Day 5, March 3 2020 At sea to South Georgia Giant Petrel It would take two days to sail to South Georgia, so breakfasts were at 8am, lunch at 12:30 and dinners at 7pm. I made a conscious effort to sit with different people at eat meal time. It is amazing how many people are just travelling around the world. The expedition team came and sit with us so I had opportunities to speak to a number of them, they come from all over the world and many different fields. There are four Australians in the Expedition team and I think at least a quarter of the guests are Australian, with many from Melbourne! Southern Royal Albatross There was an iceberg spotting competition. While we didn’t actually have to see it, we had to guess at what time and what date the first iceberg that was bigger than the size of a bus would be spotted, as it turned out by th...