King Penguins!!!!!!

This has been the moment many of us (especially Lindsay) have been waiting for - Walking among the Kings! What a morning it was. With the change of schedule due to nearby storm, we will be leaving South Georgia Islands today at 4:00 p.m., so the expeditions were dependant on getting ashore with difficult break landings if possible. The Captain and expedition teams did a super job of finding an ideal spot this morning on Salisbury Plains, home to massive King Penguin colonies. The landing was terrific. As we stepped off the zodiac right into pools of penguins and onto shore to stand and walk among them, we were all laughing and chittering like our welcome committee.

The biosecurity rules state humans need to keep 5 meters away from the wildlife. Apparently, no one has told the Kings! We were often within touching distance and we had to back away from them. I have just about worn out my thesaurus to find words that can possibly describe these adventures we have experienced. Standing today on the beach with the raw beauty of the landscape, the fresh smell of ocean (and not so fresh smell of penguins), the sight and sounds of wildlife had me gobsmacked!

After lunch today, we headed back out in the zodiac for a zodiac tour. The driver had us troll the length of this part of the beach passing 10s of thousands of King Penguins. The beach stretches over a mile long and is 10-20 deep in penguins, then they stretch back into the plains and up the mountainside. Once again, my iphone pictures can’t accurately represent what I saw. I am hoping the long lense photographers will supply some photos that will do it more justice. There are 120,000 King Penguin pairs at the height of the season here in Salisbury Plains. I don’t know how many were there this afternoon, but the sheer numbers took my breath away. Czytaj więcej