Salisbury Plain, Bay of Isles

This was our last landing on South Georgia. And what a doozy. This is probably the largest penguin colony we've seen on the trip. Over 150,000 King penguins? Hard to say. I never expected to see so many, or be up so close. Because of the bird flu, we had to stay about 5 meters from the animals. But that's close enough. Those molting brown juveniles look so miserable, waiting to blossom.

Here's some fun facts from the trip:

64.5 degrees south is the farthest we went. That's the farthest I've been. Tromso, Norway is the farthest north at 69.6° North.

The ship had 106 crew and 140 passengers, a great ratio.

We went 3,577 nautical miles on the trip and made 18 excursions! Wow. Not one was cancelled, a very rare thing.

Wildlife
Too many birds to count but especially Petrels, Skua and Albatross species.

Dusky Dolphin

6 of 7 penguin species
Gentoo penguins
Chinstrap Penguins
Adelie Penguins
King Penguins
Magellanic Penguins
Rockhopper penguins

4 whale species
Humpback whale
Fin Whale
Right whale
Sei whale

6 seal species
Leopard seal
Weddel Seal
Crabeater Seal
Fur Seal
Elephant Seal
Sea Lion

More photos and videos are here.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/U1aAQiZYooRTxJFC7

And this is the highlight of the trip: a 5 minute high-def video of 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://photos.app.goo.gl/A4h5sLzWvWtfjvcD7Read more