Gold Harbour January 21, 2012 7:30am 38*

Well you think nothing can surpass what you have just seen, then another spot on South Georgia just amazes you.  We are now spending our third day on South Georgia and this island just fascinates me.  This morning we took the zodiac to Gold Harbour.  With a view of a hanging glacier, Aeillo, our zodiac driver tells us that when she can here 10 years ago, the glacier came all the way down to the water. As we get to shore, Robin, the expedition leader, tells us that we can see the elephant seals, some fur seals, a large colony of king penguins and a few gentoos scattered around.  Albatross and other sea birds live here too.

Many of us walked first toward the large group of elephant seals.  These seals are up to 5 years old and still youngsters with the juvenile males weighing 2 tons.  As they get older they can weigh up to 6 tons.  There is a lot of playful jostling learning how to become the beach master and fight to be the head seal.  Two huge males make loud roaring sounds, bump chests, chew on each other’s chest then fall over on top of each other.  Their energy level is very low, so they can only fight for a few minutes then stop and collapse in a heap.  We can’t get to close to this action and want no part of being in the middle of this action.  

Gold Harbour is surrounded by tall mountains.  Our Expedition Team has flagged off an area for us to climb.  Not being much of a climber, I decide to go a little bit up just to get the view below.  In all this tussoc grass, we can see young fur seals and pups.  They are now becoming my favorite of all the animals here on South Georgia.  They are the cutest and most fun to shoo off.  As I am climbing up, I hear what sounds like an airplane.  My first reaction is, “An airplane on South Georgia?”  As I turn around, I see the remains of an avalanche and think, “Who pushed the avalanche button?”  This trip continues to amaze all of us.  I survey the area below then begin my decent back to the beach.

Young male elephant seals sparring

All around me are large groups of elephant seals who continue to do this playful chest bumping practice.  I decide to walk toward the beach and I see Aeillo, one of our Expedition Team, motions me to come forward.  I take a quick look behind and see to male youth going at it.  I walk toward the group of people gathered and watching our show.  As we stand there enjoying all around us, we step this way and that, but still in one location.  Suddenly we look around us and we are cornered by the water, penguins and elephant seals.

Cooper Bay – our first zodiac trip

The ship repositioned at lunch time and afterwards we had our first zodiac tour. Dressing warmly due to being on the water for an hour and now our weather was overcast, we got into the zodiac for a ride around the bay.  Here we saw our first iceberg way way off in the distance.  As we rode around, Hans Peter, our naturalist showed us bull kelp growing all along the rocks.  It looked like long black hair flowing in the water or liquid black licorice.  As we road past, the kelp moved and swayed with the motion our zodiac made.  

With everything looking dark green and black, it was kind of spooky, in a way.  This is a special spot where four different species of penguins live in one ara: the cute gentoos, the stately kings; which we would see for our last time, the macaronis and our first chinstraps. Our ride around the fur seal colonies was so much fun.  It seemed like every seal we saw turned their heads to look at us and we were looking at them.  They are so inquisitive and cute.  Our favorite was one blonde fur seal, who we named Blondee.  Being so rare, everyone was intent on getting the best photo of this bright spot in our green, black afternoon. 

What a good, good day, but our last on South Georgia.  Is there anyway Antarctica could be better than this?