King Edward Point

The weather is not kind to us but we are privileged to at least be able to land. We had snow on our balcony this morning and it continued to snow lightly throughout the morning and our time at the station. Of course such weather is to be expected and we have the right clothes so we will be dry and warm.

We can see the remains of the whaling station, Grytvikin  untouched from when it was abandoned in 1966 and when commercial whaling ended, the machinery now red with rust. Seals, birds and other wildlife are reclaiming this place and move freely between the machinery and storage tanks. I like that it is largely untouched. There is something quite surreal and beautiful of what remains of the metal structures, definitely sculptural in places. This was considered the best bay for a whaling station. That seems strange because there is not a lot of flat land but clearly enough to establish this Outpost.

The once inhabited area is not large, a church, a shop now the museum, some outbuildings and the small cemetery. One of the out buildings is a workshop and store room with rows of shelves holding supplies to repair everything I would think from the ships to the housing. Bolts of different sizes in specially marked ,open cabinets, long pieces of rusting metal and much more.

The only residence in this small settlement are those who work to support the tourists. The young women who work in the shop spend 4 months of the year living on the island. They even go camping and stay in some of the huts that were originally those of the whalers. It is so hard to imagine staying in such a harsh environment so far from everywhere.

We have a couple of hours to explore and go first to the cemetery. Shackleton’s grave stone is larger than the rest, there are maybe twenty or so people, mostly men buried here. It’s a very inhospitable place even in summer, no vegetation except some grass and small plants. Our time is spent wandering around and looking through the buildings.

Godhul our second outing, was a Norwegian whaling station, we are here to see a large colony of Gentoo penguins. We are able to walk among them for the first time. Walking is challenging because the beach and the surrounding area is either very large rocks or grass. There's a small stream that runs down to the Sea and that is an area the penguins seem to like.

The day had brightened up considerably and it was very pleasant albeit challenging walking along the beach and a little way up the hill. It is our first real exposure to how remote and inhospitable this place is even in summer. We are able to get quite close to the wildlife particularly the penguins. One option is to walk further up the hill for a better view. Even though I have my walking pole I can see that I’m not likely to make it very far. There are large mounds of tussock grasses and with short legs I would have to negotiate one after the other. At the start of the walk it was possible to walk between them but later that was not so easy. Bob went a little further but even he came back.

The ride back in the zodiac takes us around the small bay at the end of which the ship is at anchor. In the middle of the bay is a very large iceberg and off to one side is a small waterfall. On the beach are more penguins and some elephant seals. The fur seals are funny as the young seals try to get a dominant position on one of the rocks in the water. One seal would manage to get to the top and then be pushed off by another seal. There were about four of them playing around the rock.

The food as always is excellent. Might put on a gram or two. They have been exceptional with desserts for me. One day there were four, I selected two. We don't participate in the karaoke after dinnerRead more