South Georgia Island

After 3 more days at sea we arrived at South Georgia Island. Shrouded in dark clouds the massive peaks with great glaciers falling off into the sea came into view as we approached this castaway place.

South Georgia is part of the British Overseas Territory and used to serve as a base for several whaling stations. Nowadays, due to the ban on whaling, these have long been abandoned and the only people living on South Georgia are on a research station.

Over the course of the next days due to extremely lucky weather conditions, we managed to go for 6 expeditions, some on kayaks, some onto land. We saw the abandoned whaling stations, the grave of famous explorer Ernest Shackelton, and most of all… animals. Sooo many animals. First and foremost we got to see hundreds of the cutest baby fur seals, playing and swimming in “kindergarden groups”, curiously jumping up to us and nibbling on our feet, throwing their heads back and looking at us with soulful big eyes that seem to say: “come play with me”.

Two of our landings were to St. Andrews Bay and to Salisbury Plains, both of which are home to some of the worlds largest King Penguin Colonies with an estimated guess of about 400,000 breading pairs plus babies in each. It felt like an absolute priviledge standing at the edge of the colony, looking in and seeing all the little furballs, being surrounded and protected by the adults. Nature being nature, we also witnessed some petrels snatching up and eating a penguin egg, which was a little sad to see but of course the petrel also has some young to feed.

Another impressive sight was a group of huge elephant seals, lazing in the sun, occasionally grunting and bearing their teeth.

The sheer natural beauty and the huge amount of wildlife turned South Georgia into an absolutely epic destination and probably into our favourite travel spot in the world.