Preparing for our landing
Being in the last boat group to be called did give us lots of time for a relaxing buffet lunch. It was still snowing as we are lunch and the shoreline was often obscured. Fram had arrived off the landing site at 2.30 pm. At 3.15 pm we had a message from the expedition team that they were still setting up for the landing. Just as important, we were reminded that this would be a wet landing and be prepared to get wet and to have both hands free.
I decided to use my rucksack rather than my sling to carry the cameras ashore. The waterproof bags we had bought on our first sea day were not large enough to hold the rucksack. Instead we put the cameras inside them and put them inside the rucksack. Both of us would then have our hands free for the landing.
Once the boat groups started to be called the landings did not go as fast as the earlier landings. It was sometime before the break was called in the middle of the landings. We would be the last group to be called after the break.
St Andrews Bay, South Georgia
It was 5:45 pm when we arrived onshore in the snow storm. The swell on the beach was as high as predicted. We were helped out out of the bow of the Polar Circle boat by two members of the expedition team as we jumped into the sea.
As we were receiving our on shore briefing, the wind pickup up and the snow was whipped up off the beach and we suddenly lost all visibility. On our left was the ridge that overlooked the beach and in the other direction was a large group of elephant seals all piled up together.
There were King penguins everywhere on the beach. We followed the expedition team’s cones along the beach. These kept us away from the water’s edge where the majority of the baby seals where. The pups further up the shoreline were extremely curious and would charge at us to see what we would do. The advice about raising our arms above our heads to make us seem even bigger worked well.
The King penguins, on the other hand, simply stood and waited for us to get out of their way.
We watched petrels flying all around us and coming into land on the snow and settling down.
After we reached the first stream we decided to turn back to the landing site.
The view of the beach from the ridge would have been amazing in fine weather with the thousands of penguins. The snow and mist visibility was so poor that we decided it was not worth the climb up there.
This is the view up the rest of the beach from the first river crossing.
Back to the landing site
These King penguins were walking back up the beach alongside the river until one of them stood on a bone.
Walking back we had to run the gauntlet of the baby seals again. This pup was particularly curious (or aggressive?)
A group of King penguins stood and waited for us to move out of their way. They did provide us with a great opportunity to take pictures.
More snow on the beach
Suddenly the wind increased again and we were in the middle of a blizzard. The King penguins were only a few meters away but were scarcely visible.
Walking along the beach into the snow was not very easy!
Back past the landing site the elephant seals were still huddled together with King penguins all around them. We stayed well away from the seals.
There was a penguin and seal landing beach just past the elephant seals and we watched the comings and goings for a long time,
An elephant seal had taken up residence right next to the landing site which did hold up boarding for a while. It was enormous and lay on the beach watching us through its large eyes. It eventually moved off away down the beach and boarding could then safely start again.
