Our first iceberg.
South Georgia Island
King penguins
A Weddell seal
King penguins and elephant seals
A creche of year old King penguin chicks.
A young female fur seal.
Love elephant seal style.
Surveying the water for leopard seals.
There was one swimming around our Zodiacs, checking us out.
Thrashing it around to remove the head.
A leopard seal with penguin it killed (from a video I took).
Thursday, October 31st.
Overnight the crew spent some time
decorating the ship for Hallowe’en.
We have arrived at the island of
South Georgia. We could see it outside our portal. The three of us went up on
deck to watch as we approached Right Whale Bay. We saw our first iceberg! Again,
the conditions are apparently unbelievable, calm with little wind and some sun.
The temperature was about 2 or 3. Using the lens I could see penguins and
elephant seals on shore from the ship.
John and I and the rest of the
Rockhoppers were the second group out today and were shuttled to the beach.
There we were given a short briefing about where to go and what to watch out
for: male elephant seals and male fur seals, which are aggressive as it is
breeding season. I stood for a while taking photos along the beach before
hiking up the beach and following the markers to a viewpoint up on a small tussock
covered hill. From there you could get an overview of the whole area and the
colonies along the whole beach. What an incredible place! It is full of life!
Then I went back to the beach to
watch the King penguins and elephant seals up close. The noise of the elephants
from their vocalizations and passing wind were well evident. Jonathan asked if
any of us wanted to go out for a little tour on a Zodiac. John and I went and
boy am I glad we did! Our driver Bismarck promised us a leopard seal and we saw
two! John (the guide) who was in another Zodiac, showed us where one was and we
sat and watched. It came up and looked at both Zodiacs and swam under them and
kept peaking up at us to see what we were. Very curious. John told us there was
another killing a penguin nearby, so Bismarck took us there. As we pulled up we
could see the seal ‘playing’ with the penguin for a while before it was sure it
was dead and then thrashing it about on the surface to rip its head off. Brutal
to see but also amazing. We watched for a bit longer as the seal dismembered the
penguin to remove its spine to make it easier to eat. There were a number of
birds around trying to get pieces. Then we headed back to the ship, where we
washed our boots thoroughly before heading to the room to download photos and
have a pee! We cannot urinate on shore, so we either have to dehydrate
ourselves a bit or return to the ship.
Another excellent lunch of fish,
chicken schnitzel and Moroccan tagine. While we were eating the captain
relocated our boat to Rosito Harbour.
The Rockhopper group were first to
disembark and John and I were in the first Zodiac. We were met by John who gave
us a brief update. There is little wild life here at the moment, a few elephant
seals, several bull fur seals, birds and two King penguins. So, we went for a
short walk along the beach in the fine mist. However, about an hour later it
began to rain and we decided to go back. There were four of us in the Zodiac
and the leader took us on a short exploration, but unlike this morning there
was little to see other than a few shags (cormorants) and lots of kelp. So, we
went back to the ship. What a difference from this morning, and honestly by
comparison it was disappointing, but hey… it would be hard to top this morning!
While we were waiting for the
Zodiac, John regaled us with some horror stories of things gone wrong on
previous journeys over the last twenty years. Stories of people being attacked
by fur seal bulls, or an elephant seal bull that grabbed a guy and shook him
around violently ripping off part of his hamstring. He had to be airlifted by
the Chilean air force at his own expense as apparently insurance wouldn’t cover
it. Taking a voyage to these remote locations is inherently dangerous and if
something goes really wrong and someone gets severely injured it possible that
the ship would have to turn around and abandon the trip. We are expected to
make eight landings on South Georgia over four days, but John told us that one
time they were only able to make one landing! And that was in rough conditions.
So, we are indeed lucky!
Dinner was a barbeque, which they
had hoped to have on deck, but because of the rain, we ate in the Dining Room.
Lots of variety of meat and fixings.
John, Bruce and I had a quiet
evening in our room where I shared my collection of funny t-shirts and Wicked
Vans sayings.
Wow! Amazing shots. I've seen the seal tossing around the penguin on nature shows but didn't realize it was trying to remove its head.....yikes. To bad the weather isn't a little colder. Rain is always a bummer. Food sounds good and happy you're having a great time.
ReplyDeleteLove Megan xox