• Dave HipplerAntarctica - Lucky Number 7Traveler
    Grytviken, a former whaling stationFur Seal PupShackleton's graveAt Ernest Shackleton's grave, with Shackleton WhiskeyMourning Shackleton1King PenguinsFormer whaling boatThis held whale oilThe seldom used church. It became more of a meeting hall. 😆Love the list of old movies they hadAt the MuseumTools used in whalingAn interesting tour

    Grytviken, South Georgia Island

    Jan 8–9 in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands ⋅ ☁️ 36 °F

    Pronounced GRIT vit kin, Grytviken is a former whaling station settled by Norwegians. What a nasty industry. Before petroleum and plastics, whales provided heating oil, lamp oil, and lots of other products. It shut down in the 60's.

    There's a small community that lives there now and it has a nice museum. We got a tour of the rusting facilities from one of the museum employees. The site was cleaned up about 10 years ago.

    It's also where Ernest Shackleton is buried. He and his men survived that arduous trip from 1914 to 1916. But several years later he made a return trip from England for another expedition and died shortly after landing here. His wife wanted him to be buried here.

    There were lots of pesky seal pups hanging around. We were lucky to have a sunny day.

    More photos and videos are here.
    https://photos.app.goo.gl/SmWWSwQQvnqehcP5A

    And this is the highlight of the trip: a Southern Right Whale sighting on January 10th. It's so rare for one of them to hang out next to a Zodiac, I'm posting it in every footprint.

    https://findpenguins.com/0x7ax2pvwii8d/footprin…    Read more