February 13 - Salisbury Plain, South Georgia

This is our second day here at the island of South Georgia and we’re lying off Salisbury Plain, a broad coastal plain on the north side of the island.  Instead of a ring of standing stones as at the other Salisbury, what I can see here lining the beach and going up the hillsides are thousands, perhaps a million, penguins.  I’m slated to go ashore in a little while and despite the fact that it’s drizzling, I’m going to have to do it.

This place is a big rookery for King Penguins and that’s what we’ll be seeing.  It’s a very gray day with occasional cold drizzle and a lot of fog off and on.  As I waited for my group to be called I went out on my veranda and looked with binoculars at the shore when it wasn’t all fogged in.  I took the photo below and it’s hard to tell, but what looks like a zigzag glacial moraine or river coming down the hillside is actually a river of penguins.  I’ve tried to enhance the picture but this is about as good as I could get it.

That zigzag is really hundreds (thousands?) of penguins

When my group was called I went down, donned my terribly uncomfortable boots, and got in the zodiac in cold rain.  The water is very calm today, but what I didn’t realize until I was in the zodiac and our driver told us was that we were landing on a rocky beach in the surf. The ride was fine but the disembarkation had my heart racing.  We did indeed land in surf and had to fling our legs over the side and get into the surf.  Thankfully there were lots of people to manhandle me and get me out of it.  My balance just isn’t what it used to be.  

Once I got out of the surf I found myself on a rocky beach (not the best for feeling stable) surrounded by more penguins than I could possibly count.  There was a little group of seals lying nearby and everyone seemed to be getting along.  There were flotillas of penguins in the water along the landing site and they had to be shooed away as we careened ashore.  There was lots of noise because penguins are very vocal.  They’re also quite nosy, so they approach you and look at you as if to say “who are you, you very tall, strange looking yellow and black penguin?”

Penguins, penguins everywhere

I didn’t walk far because frankly it was a rocky and uneven path and the fog and rain were getting worse.  After taking a few pictures I got in line to get back on a zodiac.  Getting in in the surf was even worse than getting off.  I think I was basically flung in and then when we had a full load we were off.  We got swamped by  the wake of another boat so we all got pretty drenched.  Today I appreciated the waterproof pants they recommended we all wear.

Well, I accomplished my goal to go ashore and see the sights in South Georgia.  I didn’t perhaps spend as much time ashore as some of my shipmates.  I got a pretty good taste of it nonetheless.  I forgot to mention that we have people out on kayaks here. While we were waiting to board the zodiac we wondered how they can see each other in the groups that went out because the fog was often very thick.