We were stood down at our planned landing as the gale force winds hammering down the glacier were clearly too dangerous to put the zodiacs in the water. We headed off to breakfast in the hope that the wind speed would half from the sixty to seventy mph early morning winds. Sometimes that can happen in an hour or two. However, it was clear by the time that we were finishing breakfast, that this wasn't the case. As often needed in South Georgia, the Expedition Leader Ali had a plan B and we were soon heading onto the nearby bay at Stromness. Fortunately, we were the only Expedition ship in this part of South Georgia at the time and a change of venue could be quickly agreed with the South Georgia authorities. We arrived to find the wind was still strong, but it quickly calmed down enough to land.
There were scattered groups of Antarctic Fur Seals and Southern Elephant Seals along the beach and with part of the beach being out of bounds, it meant individuals in that area weren't disturbed. But all the ones I saw weren't bothered by the visitors. However, earlier in the breeding season the Male Southern Elephant Seals can be more dangerous when they are fighting each other for the Females. There was a leucistic Antarctic Fur Seal pup which proved to be very popular, as it was very photogenic.
After photographing the leucistic Antarctic Fur Seal and the whaling station at a distance, we had all the passengers ashore. One of the options was to walk to Shackleton's Waterfall with some of the Expedition staff. I was obviously keen on this idea, which also had the bonus of getting the chance to stretch my legs, even if it was only a three mile round walk. There were Penguins and Seals along the walk along the floodplain.
Personally, I was happy with this change of venue as Stromness is an important site in the Shackleton story. It was the whaling station that Ernest Shackleton, Frank Worsley and Tom Crean finally walked into, after their epic boat crossing of the Drake Passage from Elephant Island. They finally reached South Georgia on the rough South coast at King Haakan Bay. Their small boat was sufficiently damaged in the landing to be unable to put back to sea in it.
Shackleton took his two strongest companions and despite not having proper climbing equipment, they made the first crossing of South Georgia's mountains. Finally, after twenty-eight hours of walking, they heard the hooter at Stromness to call the whalers to work. But it was another eight hours of descending and walking before they finally walked into the Stromness whaling station. I wrote a Blog Post after my first visit about Shackleton, Wild, Worsley & Crean.
This was their first contact with the outside world since they left South Georgia, eighteen months earlier. A boat rescued Shackleton's three companions from King Haakan Bay the following day. It was to take three attempts over the next three months from South America, before Shackleton finally managed to rescue the rest of his stranded crew on Elephant Island. More of that in a future Blog Post.
Finally, we reached Shackleton's Waterfall.
Back on the beach, I spent some time photographing some of the Wilson's Storm-petrels that were feeding just off the water's edge.
It had been a great morning and we were heading for Grytviken for the afternoon. If the weather held that would be fantastic to see Grytviken in the sunshine.
