Falkland Islands Deployment

After a couple of days, we left our anchorage in Grytviken, minding all the icebergs about, and headed round to Gold Harbour. It only took a few hours to get there, and I was lucky enough to get off the ship within an hour of anchoring. Unfortunately the snow was really heavy, and it was very misty too- and considering it just looked like a beach from the ship, it didn't seem like much, until we got there on the MIB, and then suddenly realised the sheer volume of life.

There were so many seals, that we were in danger of causing trouble because there was no space to pull the boat in- and with these huge elephants in the water, it was pretty daunting! There's not many words to describe Gold Harbour except spectacular. The mountains that surround the bay, I worked out, are topped with 60 metres of untouched snow- an avalanche waiting to happen! I took 170 photographs in poor weather on that evening, but the forecast for the next day was much better, so I gave my camera to Olly who went ashore and took a whole load more in the morning. So these are the best shots from both of the trips- mostly Olly's because he had better weather.

And if you wondered if there is a restriction on getting too close to the animals, well yes there is, but there's nothing stopping them walking right up to us! I witnessed all sorts of things happening; a lot of mating, 2 male elephants fighting over the females, the biggest colony of king penguins you're ever likely to see (there's supposed to be about 10,000 here), Weddell seals, fur seals, gentoo penguins, and what I thought was originally a wandering albatross turned out to be a northern Giant Petrel (the southern one I saw a lot in the Falklands). And about 1000 baby king penguins being protected by the adults. It was all going on! (I'm slightly annoyed that I still haven't seen a wandering albatross...)

The photos with me in them weren't my camera, if you were disappointed with the quality...


So the 2 photos below are a Northern Giant Petrel and a bunch of king penguins. Below that is a mixture of seals and penguins... then further on there's a very beautiful fur seal, a weddell seal that got very friendly with a visitor on our ship, a dead baby penguin (maybe suicidal), the money shot (Gloucester in the background), and a few close encounters with a friendly king!



















This was an experience I'll never ever forget. Next stop- St. Andrews Bay!