Dat 14 Afternoon
Stromness was a former whaling vessel repair station. We arrived from Fortuna Bay in the afternoon, our ship anchored very close to shore, but we still had to zodiac in. The weather was absolutely brilliant, warm & sunny. There were lots of fur seals lying around, and a few penguins to greet us, but mostly it was abandoned buildings & rocky terrain. Behind the beach was grass tussocks, many one of which was topped by fur seal.
There were fur seal moms, pups, and youngsters everywhere! But there was another main attraction on the shore – the King Penguins. They huddled together in the grasses or mainly in the streams, where they could cool their feet in the water. Interspersed in smaller numbers and prowling around in search of eggs, pups, or carrion were skuas and southern giant petrels. The skuas are clearly hated by the other inhabitants. We walked about 2 kms from the beach inland, to the Shackleton Waterfall.
