South Georgia Island - Day 2 -Friday January 20, 2012

Stromness 9:00AM 40*

Beth at Shackleton's Waterfall

Since I have been indulging in all the lovely food and drink on the ship, today I decided to take the 2K walk up from Stromness, an old deserted whaling station to Shackelton’ Waterfall.  Some brave explorers to the 5K walk from Fortuna Bay over the mountain to the Waterfall and then down to Stromness.  On the way in, we were greeted by our friendly fur seals…. So many cute pups along the way.  A glacier had cut a wide riverbed down to the beach and the seals and a few King penguins lived here peacefully.  Just a few a reindeer were encountered as we got further back in the valley.  They were skiddish so didn’t stay around long as we approached.  The walk led us through marshy boggy grass and it was easy to sink in.  As I was crossing on small creek, I went one knee in the much, but luckily my waterproof pants saved me and I continued my trek.  

As we got off the zodiac, we were able to make out the red dots on the ridge who were the 30 some passengers who had taken Shackelton’s Walk. As we got  closer to the waterfall, the descending red dots got closer to the falls.  We were able to be the first to congratulate these explorers as completed they morning adventure.  I stopped and admired the fall, rested for a few minutes and turned around to return to the shore.  This time, I took the rocky river bed, which was actually a little easier than the marsh bank.  All in all, my 4K walk was a nice way to spend the morning even though it was one minute quite breezy in need to my gaiter and hood, the next minute so still with the sun beating down and need to unzip my parka.   Such is the life of an explorer!  The ship left Stromness as we enjoyed lunch and the lovely show of fur seals frolicking in the water beside our ship. 

Gyrtviken (grit – vick- n)  1:50pm 39* winds 49 km/h

Betty & Beth toasting at Whaler's Cementary

Well, all I can say is this was another amazing afternoon.  The entire ship disembarked in the bay at Gyrtviken.  We took the zodiacs over to the Whaler’s Cemetery and toasted to Sir Ernest Shackleton.  He is buried there along with many others. Shackleton actually died in Uraguay and story has it his wife insisted me be moved to Gyrtviken.  Just a few weeks ago, the remains of Frank Wild were taken from somewhere in South Africa and moved to Whaler’s Cemetery to be with his boss.  He is now resting to Shackleton’s left.  Each of us were given a glass of champagne and Peter, our historian, told us some history, quoted two poems and we toasted Sir Shackleton.  Amazingly as all this was going on, ice pellets fell all around us.  They continued for most of our time in this old whaling station.  Now all the old station tanks are a rusty brown-orange.  Quite a sight to see in the area of fur seals, elephant seals and King penguins.  There is a church, museum, post office and gift shop.  Who knew that this far south we’d be able to spend some money for souvenirs.