Wildlife wonders of South Georgia

We had finished our two sea days and travelled almost 1300 kilometres and several degrees North - from 64 deg S to 54 deg S - and had finally reached the island of South Georgia!
We were still technically in the Antarctic region - but we were out of the ‘Sea ice’ zone, and thus there were no scenic ice bergs and floes around - more’s the pity. They were so lovely.
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) is a British Overseas Territory in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote and inhospitable collection of islands, consisting of South Georgia and a chain of smaller islands known as the South Sandwich Islands.
​We reached the Southern-most point of the islands, and went for a spin in a beautiful fjord - the  Drygalski Fjord.

It is named after the learned  German professor Erich von Drygalski - leader of the first German Antarctic Expedition, 1901–03
The poor guys got trapped in the ice for more than a year! But the expedition discovered new territory in Antarctica, and named it the ‘Kaiser Wilhelm II Land’, and found an extinct volcano which they named after their ship -  the ‘Gaussberg’.
This inlet offers protection from the wind and swell and is therefore a great place for a peaceful cruise amongst the many residents. Fur seals frolics in the waters, elephant seals litter the small coves and nooks along the way and Antarctic terns fly to and fro their nests. The mountains descend steeply into the sea here, so waterfalls cascade down the cliff sides.
We were all on deck to the absolutely beautiful sights - and were extremely excited to see huge colonies of King Penguins!
WOOHOO! Penguin colonies! Finally!
​We had been robbed of seeing Penguin colonies on Brown Bluff and Snow hill island and Cockburn island and all the Antarctic locations - so it was a relief to finally see a penguin colony!
And the King Penguins are really beautiful! They look so much better than the other commoner penguins, with their beautiful yellow and black faces.
‘Good morning everyone, good morning!’ Shelli greeted us and told us to get ready for our first  Zodiac cruise in South Georgia, and everyone stampeded and trampled over each other to get on the boats.

Our Zodiacs went exactly the other way from the Penguin colonies - to show us a bunch of fur seal families.
I was very happy to see the fur seals - they are very photogenic. They have expressions, emotions - they make love, fight, grumble, over-parent their cubs and I swear that I could see the cub giving its mom the exact same look that my  teenage daughter gives me.
Raj wasn’t impressed.
'I am from Canada!’ he declared. ‘And now from New Jersey! I have seen so many otters and suchlike that I am sick of all these stinky buggers!’
Apparently the Zodiac driver also agreed with him - and he turned the boat around and we went off the see the King Penguin colony.
What a wonderful sight! Amazing! Mind-boggling! Beautiful! Ooo La la!
After lunch we continued into Drygalski Fjord on a ship cruise. Although the wind picked up, many of us opted to stay outside to take in the amazing views all around us as we proceeded into the bay. Glaciers towered above us, many sporting waterfalls. The cloudy blue water and steep mountain peaks made for an incredible backdrop for photos from the deck.
While pausing to take in the scenery around us we enjoyed the sound of the South Georgia pipit, the islands only song bird, overhead. A resident only seen near ice, the snow petrel, gracefully picked up prey from the water’s surface. Heading back to the ship we could hear glacial ice pop all around us as carbon dioxide, trapped for centuries within the ice, was released back into the atmosphere.
In the afternoon we continued into Cooper Bay to visit our first penguin colony on the island. We were met with large numbers of king penguins, giant petrels, elephant seals and fur seals on the beach while gentoo penguins strolled by seemingly unaffected by the jousting young elephant seal males.
We reached Cooper bay and piled into the Zodiacs. The plan was that we would first go to see a colony of Macaroni penguins  - we would not be able to land there, however - just see them from the boats. And then we would go to Cooper bay and land there to see a whole bunch of King penguins.
The Macaroni penguin colony was amazing! It was right on top of a steep hill, and the poor sods went up and down it god-knows-how-many-times every day. You could clearly see a stream of the snappily dressed Macaronis waddling up and down the muddy and slippery slope.
Then we went to Coopers bay and landed. And what a mind-blowing place it was!
O M G
What a paradise!  It was like being in a National Geographic documentary!
The place was full of wildlife! More wildlife than you can shake a stick at!
The beach was full of seals - Fur seals and Elephant seals. The Elephant seals were either chilling out completely or fighting with each other! And that fighting was awesome. Two big guys would rear up and look like a combination of a Sumo wrestler and Jabba the hut and scream at each other. Then they would wrestle! They would both lean back and then snap forward so that their bodies met with a huge ‘THUD’ and then they would scream some more! They would occasionally bite each other too - but their skin was so tough and scarred and full of blubber, that they wouldn’t sustain any great damage from the big yellow teeth.
You might be chill, but you will never be as chill as a seal!
​The King penguins walked busily  to and fro as if they were late for business meetings, and chittered and chattered with each other. They would go and meet, and raise their necks like ET  and flap their wings at each other, as if they were having an argument.
Downy chicks almost as big as their parents hung about in large ‘creches’ and frequently stood with their eyes closed - looking like bearded blond sages in deep prayer.
I used a monopod for the camera  for the first time - and I was amazed at how useful it was!
We were all so happy with this landing at Cooper’s bay - that all the earlier angst was forgotten!