January 11

Day 16  South Georgia / At Sea

Sea and weather conditions will determine our departure time from South Georgia today.

We're not actually leaving South Georgia quite yet.  Two more 'operations' here.  Salisbury Plain this morning.  Looks like there are lots and lots of penguins (and probably seals) ready to greet us on shore.  Bright sunshine first thing this morning, but a bit more clouded over now (8am).  From the boat the plain looked a little shallow, but looks can be deceiving; it went on forever!  Lovely setting.  So much room and so much wildlife!  Mountains and glaciers right behind it. It is a broad coastal plain found within the Bay of Isles.  It lies between the mouths of the Grace and Lucas glaciers.  It is best known as the breeding site for as many as 60,000 king penguins.  That info is from Wikipedia.  Lonely Planet says that number is more like 250,000.   

Today I thought I would take less pictures and just watch the goings-on.  Well, I did take fewer pictures but I still did end up with about 200. 




I was a bit early returning to the boats, so I took a zodiac cruise when it was offered.  It was great to see the king penguins in the water and their colony from the boat.  Unlike the other types of penguins, they spend some of their time sitting on top of the water like other seabirds.  And they don't do quite the same constant porpoising that the gentoos do.  Hard to get good pics from a bouncing zodiac, though. 



And this afternoon - Right Whale Bay.  Our last visit to South Georgia, near the north end of the island.  The bay is named for the southern right whales found in the area.  Still lots of icebergs in the water as we cruise to our pm destination.  Looks like an another big penguin colony............  And indeed it was.  Lots more fur seals (and a few elephant seals) and many, many king penguins.  We were able to walk to a nice vantage point over a big part of the colony.  




And - another zodiac cruise after the land portion.  Just around the bay to a few more little penguin & seal beaches.  A bit  more of a mix of gentoos and kings.  So much activity going on everywhere! 

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