January 5, 2023June 26, 2023

Godthul, South Georgia

This post is part of our epic adventure to the Falklands, South Georgia, and Antarctica. In case you don’t want to read this sequentially, or you are looking for a specific part of the trip, here are some shortcuts:

Godthul, South Georgia – January 5th

54.2838° S, 36.2764° W

2 Celsius / 39 Fahrenheit – Mostly sunny

We woke to a beautiful day in Godthul harbour. We opened the sliding glass door from some fresh air and heard the call of the seals.

I felt like I was getting a cold, so I decided to skip the morning snorkel. I did a rapid antigen test in our cabin, and was relieved that it was negative. Everyone was wearing masks around the ship, but then we all eat together so it is kind of pointless. I went to the mudroom with Andy to help him get ready, and we learned that one of our 10-person snorkel group had Covid. Ugh!

Our destination was a gentoo penguin colony on a hillside overlooking the harbour. After landing on the narrow pebbly beach, we set off into the tussock covered hills. It was pretty warm, and Andy had no interest in climbing while wearing a drysuit, so he stayed on the shore and let the wildlife come to him.

I set off to climb what looked and felt like a mountain to me. There was no trail, so you would hike to a member of the expedition team, and they would point you towards the next red jacket. The terrain was uneven and steep, which meant using the tussock grass to pull yourself up the hillside. The tussock grass concealed territorial fur seals, and I nicknamed it “the grass the growls” and “the bushes that may bite.” It was strenuous, terrifying, exhilarating and beautiful, all at the same time.

The first plateau revealed a lake encircled by rocky mountains.

With the hard part of the climb behind me, I continued on to the gentoo colony overlooking the calm harbour below.

And after another 10 minutes of walking, I reached another gentoo colony. This one had more grey fluffy chicks, whose useless wings seem unusually long.