An Antarctic Adventure: Hercules Bay, Shackleton and a secret squirrel landing – Day 12

9 December Saturday

Wow! It’s hard to believe, but we were on deck, ready to load the Zodiacs, before 4.00 am. An early start for a Zodiac cruise around Hercules Bay on the north coast of South Georgia. It was named by Norwegian whalers after the Hercules, a whale catcher which had visited the bay.

The bay was probably a geologist’s delight, surrounded by rocky layers, thrusting up at angles. It is a cirque, with mountains creating a bowl to close us in on three sides, formed by glacial erosion. Streams and snow melt descended steep faces, dropping to the bay in lovely waterfalls. Algaes and mosses of various colours were spattered across the rocks above the waterline. In the water, Dr Peter had to steer through kelp fields, which looked rather like heaps of giant green fettuccine floating in the water. The kelp managed to clog up the propeller blades a few times, which Dr Peter fixed by clunking into reverse until the blades shook the kelp free.

And then, of course, there was the wildlife. Those tough little Macaroni Penguins scrabbled up and down the rocks to their nests. It seemed impossible that a flightless bird would even choose to negotiate these steep cliffs, let alone have nests on little toe-holds near the top. As we puttered close beside them, a group of five or six Macaronis clumsily descended, and stopped, perching uncomfortably about a metre above the water, looking like they really didn’t want to go in. When one accidentally lost his precarious grip, and slid into the water, he was quick to climb out again.

Further along, a group of Macaronis was bathing in a rock pool, watched by a (random) Gentoo Penguin. At the bottom of a waterfall, four King Penguins shared a gravelly secluded beach with heaps of Fur Seals. Lolling on his side, a big, blonde, Jabba-the-Hutt-esque Elephant Seal watched us curiously.

We saw Blue-eyed Shags, and successfully spotted the elusive South Georgian Pipet, a small brown bird, about the size of a sparrow, with orange feet.

As I was expecting a scenery- rather than a wildlife-cruise, I’d put my 24-105 lens on my 5D, and wasn’t carrying my other camera. So my trusty Canon Powershot SX40HS had to fill the gaps (and did so, admirably). I was quite delighted to actually get some shots of the Pipet.  My now elderly little ‘concert camera’ is versatile and reliable. Awesome!

We were back on board the “Polar Pioneer” for breakfast, and our hard-working crew was moving us on to our next stop. We anchored off Fortuna Bay, and the conditions made me profoundly glad that I’d elected NOT to do the “Shackleton Walk”. The walkers would climb the hill out of Fortuna Bay, go over the top of the range and descend on “loose scree” the other side to Stromness. A descent on loose scree was enough for me to decide that this wasn’t for me, not to mention that I didn’t fancy walking five kilometres in multiple layers and Muck Boots!

The few of us who’d decided not to do the walk had the option of accompanying the walkers ashore to look at Fortuna Bay, then returning to the ship. To be honest, when I saw the low cloud over the land, and thought about another descent on that slippery gangway, it seemed like a good idea not to test my luck.  So, I stayed aboard.

By all accounts, the landing on Fortuna Bay was somewhat frightening. The Fur Seals were very aggressive, so the expeditioners had to cross the beach in a tight bunch, extending poles in all directions to fend them off. As one described it, they shuffled up the hill, bristling with poles from all angles, looking rather like a sea anemone extending its spikes. Fun!  One of the crew members, Sasha, who’d come ashore with the Zodiacs, made a belated decision that he was going to join the walkers, only to come to the conclusion after a few solo confrontations with the seals, that he’d prefer to go back to the ship, so retreated to the safety of the Zodiacs!

With the Zodiacs tucked safely aboard, we upped anchor and headed around to join our adventurers at the other end of their walk, Stromness. In hindsight, I’m still in two minds about missing the walk, although I did feel somewhat vindicated when I saw one of the slopes they had to cross, and that “loose scree” in their photos – not to mention hearing stories about the ‘welcoming committees’ of Fur Seals at both Fortuna AND Stromness!!

We didn’t lose any expeditioners to seals, or “loose scree”, so everybody was back on board for a delicious lunch. For our busy crew, it was up-anchor again and on to our next anchorage, this time near Grytviken.

Grytviken is part of a British Overseas Territory. The name comes from Swedish and means “the Pot Bay”, referring to old English trypots found on the site by the Swedish Antarctic Expedition in 1902. At its peak, the site was serviced by 300 men, and took 195 whales in its first season alone.

We landed below the cemetery, dodging past a few resident Fur Seals, and made our way to the cemetery to drink a toast to Sir Ernest Shackleton. When the explorer died of a heart attack on board his ship in 1922 on his way to the Antarctica for his fourth expedition, he was posthumously returned to Grytviken. Grytviken was significant to Shackleton as the place from which he planned the rescue of the “Endurance” crew. This year was the 100th anniversary of the Endurance Expedition, so it was fitting to spend some time with him. On the reverse of Shackleton’s granite tombstone is a quotation of one of his favourite poets, Robert Browning: “I hold… that a man should strive to the uttermost for his life’s set prize.”

I was particularly touched to see a plaque to the right of the Shackleton grave marked to Frank Wild, “Shackleton’s Right Hand Man”:  a lovely tribute! The backstory to this plaque is also touching:  When Wild died in 1939, his wife had him cremated so that she could fulfil his final wish of being buried beside Shackleton. When Germany invaded Poland two weeks later, leading to the start of World War II, it seemed that Wild’s wish would not be fulfilled.

In 2002 author, Angie Butler (The Quest of Frank Wild) began researching Wild’s history in 2002, and started investigating the fate of his ashes. She discovered in 2011 that his ashes were in a disused vault under the chapel in a Johannesburg cemetery. The ashes were transported to South Georgia from Ushuaia aboard the “Academic Ioffe”, accompanied by Butler, six distant relatives of Wild, and Shackleton’s granddaughter. In November 2011, the gravestone was erected and a ceremony conducted.

We met the curator of the South Georgia museum for a tour of Grytviken. Ominously, she had a walking pole in one hand (to fend off pesky Fur Seals, obviously). She walked quickly down the hill from the cemetery, and had to wait for us all to catch up at the bottom, when our path was cut off by Fur Seals. She took us to various spots on the site, telling us about life in Grytviken in its heyday.

These days, the site in King Edward Cove, is home to about 20 people, the rusting and desolate ‘plant’ from the oil factory, including tanks, grounded whaling vessels, and a few buildings that have been restored – like the post office, the men’s barracks, the Norwegian Chapel and the museum. It was fascinating to see these beautifully restored buildings, surrounding by the gradually decaying whaling plant and paraphernalia. We were cautioned to not walk near some of the tanks, as their foundations had moved in an earthquake, so they were no longer safe. Once the tour was over, I went to check out the chapel, built in 1911, positioned towards the back of the settlement, below what used to be the ski-slope.

The South Georgia museum, open to visitors like us, depicts bygone times in the sub-Antarctic, including Shackleton’s ‘adventures’ after the icing-in of the “Endurance”, with a replica of the open lifeboat, the “James Caird”, in which he embarked to seek help, and the wildlife of the area. (A stuffed albatross on a pedestal in one room is a stunning depiction of the size of these amazing birds! – the wingspan is absolutely enormous!)

The museum is located within what used to be the home of the whaling facility manager. It also contains a very nice souvenir shop, with ‘Grytviken beanies’, and cold weather gear like scarves, gloves, jumpers, and jackets, not to mention penguin-motif items, such as earrings, key rings and tea towels. With bulk and weight already posing a luggage challenge for me (remembering that I would have to pack the Aurora jackets that I hadn’t had to pack on the way here), I decided on a pair of cute penguin sterling silver earrings, a penguin keyring, and a blue Grytviken beanie. Comparing notes with Michelle, Jane and Jacqui, we discovered that we’d all bought the same beanie (most in the same blue, too), so we decided to wear them to dinner that night!

We sat on the seats outside the Museum, watching the world around us, before heading around to the designated meeting spot for the Zodiacs. While we waited for a boat-load of passengers to accumulate for the Zodiac, we were entertained by the antics of some nearby ducks (?). The trip back to our ship was uneventful.

Tonight there was a special treat for dinner:  a barbecue on the back deck. What a lovely idea except that:  i) it was freezing cold (though we were happy to have an excuse to wear our new Grytviken beanies) and ii) it was cramped. We had to wend our way through parts of the ship we’d not needed to visit before, past crew quarters on the lower deck, before popping out the door. Here we were confronted with several tubs of dress-up hats, and an expectation that we would don some crazy piece before joining the party. Michelle and Jane were wearing relatively innocuous, but brightly coloured, leis, along with their Grytviken beanies, and I luckily managed to find one for myself. Jacqui found an Elvis sort of rubber wig, with sideburns and cowlick… Maybe it kept her head warm, at least.

The music blasting out of the stereo probably reflected the average age of the expeditioners rather than the ‘hotel’ staff – lots of songs to which we could happily sing along – “retro”, apparently. I refused the offer of a warm alcoholic gluhwein in favour of helping myself to a delicious barbecue with sausages, skewers, chicken, three or four salads, and a delicious slice for dessert.

While we were standing eating our food, Chris came over to tell us that he’d arranged a secret landing for us in the morning:  we had to be up and ready for the Zodiacs really early (again), and would have the opportunity for a couple of exclusive hours ashore before breakfast. It was secret squirrel stuff:  don’t tell anyone (this potentially presented problems for those in the photography group who were sharing cabins with non-photography people – such as Hellen, Ian and Rob); there wouldn’t be any wake-up announcement from Liz:  we just had to get ourselves on deck ready to load at 4.45am. Chris would go out in the Zodiac with the Team beforehand to check out conditions, and if they were favourable, we’d get our exclusive time ashore. We were like kids whispering over a secret at the prospect:  THIS was more the type of experiences we’d been hoping for when we signed up for the trip! Most decided that if we were to have an early start in the morning, we’d make it a night now. (It had been a long day after an early start,  so I had no hesitation to abandon the party!)

Photo album for this trip is on my Flickr account at https://www.flickr.com/gp/jeaneeem/kr50HF

I also post Antarctica photos on my Instagram account (jeaneeem). Please feel free to check ’em out!