Day 13 Morning
Around 0800 hrs we arrived in the northern coast of South Georgia Island. As soon as captain anchored the ship, the expedition team went out to inspect the area & prepared for land excursion. Once completed Captain arranged orderly transfer to the land. On arrival we found a huge elephant seal had decided to set up a camp on our landing site. Anyway, we were briefed by the team leader and we proceeded towards thousands of noisy but photogenic King Penguins including chicks & many seals and their playful lovely pups- what a sight! I loved watching these beautiful and inquisitive penguins. These penguins must be so used to have visitors that they march quite close to human without any fears. A penguin rookery/colony is unpleasantly smelly. In spite of this the highlight of this particular visit was the spectacular king penguin colony and my
experience was complemented by a very fine gorgeous weather which is rare in this part of the world. This bay has approximately 50,000 king penguins and many Elephant seals, Fur seals, Skuas & Southern giant Petrels. By the time we arrived Right Whale Bay the mating season for the Elephant seals had passed but for Fur seals just begun. Fur seals were not very happy lot, constantly fighting to protect their harem. Fur seals were so aggressive we needed protection by expedition team. As expected, South Georgia Island (sub-Antarctic region) is marked by rugged mountainous terrain with spectacular scenery and abundant & amazing wildlife. It’s a relatively small bay – only 2.4 km wide. It was very exciting for me; this was the first time I had the opportunity to experience such a large colony of King Penguins. Many of us have experienced magic moments, for me it was one of those moments, standing in front of tens of thousands of cute looking king penguins.
