South Georgia III.b - Jason Harbour and Grytviken

Jason Harbour was our morning drop. They found a calm enough spot to put the zodiacs in and off we were. Off into the gapping jaws of the fur seals. The beach was lousy with them. It's hard to believe that something so cute can be so nasty. To make it even more challenging there were grass tussocks...and mud channels between the tussocks...and seals in the mud channels...and seals in the tussocks. They start off with a high pitched woof and then progress to a deep growl like I imagine a lion would make. They puff up on their front flippers and then charge you...and they can out run a human.

I thought that I had found a clear way when the growling started than I turned around and about 8 young fur seals popped there heads out of the tussocks. A couple of quick giant steps took me away from the Jurrasic seals and took me to about a meter from a pile (yes a pile) of elephant seals. "Oh, they won't bother you" says the guide, "they're so sweet, they always need to touch one another." Elephant seals are about the size of a station wagon and there were 4 of them all cosied up together. Fortunately breeding season was over and the one I was almost nose to nose with just yawned and went back to sleep...monster picture to follow in a couple of weeks.

I stuck pretty close to the guide for the rest of the morning hike. We headed up a hill to survey the peril below and spent sometime watching the king penguins molt - never a dull moment here! Back at the beach I parked myself on the gravel, careful to check my back from time to time, and was rewarded with a visit from a king penguin who came and checked out my boots.

I would have had a longer visit except the bozos with the expensive cameras and no brains pushed their way in and put off the pengy. I decided to take an early zodiac back - the crew complimented me on my entry technique - and some of the, lets call them the "camera people" or CP's for short, followed. The CP's do not receive instructions well and stand up when they shouldn't. The zodiac drivers have taken to making them sit down and wait until the end to exit. Hee!

The afternoon wind picked up but our next stop was sheltered well enough to land - Grytviken. This was the last operating whaling station in South Georgia and is now home to the British Antarctic Survey and the final resting place of Sir Ernest Shackleton. The Whalers graveyard was our first stop where we toasted "the boss" with a glass of Guiness.

The rest of the afternoon was free to wander through the crumbling (yet asbestos free) whaling station and museum.

I decided that it was time to stand up to the seals. As I was taking pictures of a whaling boat wreck, a young one got all puffed up and made to charge so I faced him, stamped my foot and yelled. He went slinking off so quickly that I felt guilty. The lady in the museum said I wasn't to worry about it. All the staff and researchers carry broom sticks with them to wave at the beasts. Apparently tickling their very sensitive whiskers, best done with the broomstick, will send them running.

I could spend hours in a crumbling industrial ruin taking pictures but the weather just didn't cooeperate. It rained. It snowed. It sleeted. The sun made brief appearances. Still it was great wandering the tanks and boilers. I guess the somber weather did fit the mood. This was, afterall, the site of unspeakable carnage.

So as with the other whaling stations it was nice to see the baby elephant seals and penguins, and grudgingly, the fur seals making their home there.

In the evening the ship hosted the staff from the British Antarctic Survey for diner. A young US/British woman named Ashely sat at our table. At 32 she was the oldest staff member after the commissioner She  had been a Diving Officer at their Adelaide base and moved over over to South Georgia as Boat Officer. Her work skill set would put Laura Croft to shame and in her spare time she professionally raced yachts - underachieve much? Après-diner we had presentations in the lounge on some of their ongoing projects. This included some feeding pattern and diet studies of the seals using GPS tagging and faecal analysis (fun collecting that!)  As well we heard about the world's largest rat eradication plan for SGI. The rats (thank you whalers) are endangering the indigenous bird population and must go. Jenna the jeweller got into the fund raising mood and organized a contest over the following days to come up with a name for a group of ad hoc donors.

Sent to you over a satellite phone using GMN's XGate software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short