Stromness Whaling Station, South Georgia

Abandoned whaling station at Stromness, South Georgia

 

Thursday, November 9 -  Stromness, South Georgia

From our daily briefing: “Stromness is a former whaling vessel repair station, named after the three-mile wide body of water that must be crossed to reach the station. The name was applied around 1912, presumably by Norwegian whalers who frequented its harbors. Stromness is also the name of a town in the Orkney Islands off northern Scotland, and it is likely that there is a connection between the two. It is here that Shackleton arrived after a 36-hour hike across South Georgia to reach help and save his men on Elephant Island. Although we are not permitted to approach within 200m of the station buildings, the beaches and plains of the bay are rich in wildlife, including elephant & fur seals and king & gentoo penguins.”

Sleeting, snowing, raining - all three at once!

I was up as usual around 4 AM, it was foggy, freezing and rainy.  With that, I stayed tucked in. 

The Endurance continued on to Stromness Bay. The weather is really spectacular  today - very moody, rainy, sleety and foggy.  You could see some snow accumulating higher up on the black rocks of the peaks by mid morning. It’s interesting that in this harbor, there is a steep drop off at the water’s edge, so the Captain could pull the ship right up to the beach and rest it’s nose on the shelf.  Zodiacs are still needed to actually get to the land, but they traveled less than a block to reach the beach.

The Endurance parked on the beach at Stromness

Hikers had to fend off many male fur seals to head to the waterfall

Michael went out on the excursion at Stromness. It was a 1.5 mile walk to the waterfall that Shackleton and team climbed down to arrive at the Stromness location after they crossed from the south over the mountains to the whaling station on the north of the island.  I stayed behind and relaxed and took tons of photos.  Stromness is very interesting. It consists of a large whaling station that’s been abandoned since the 60s.  You can’t go near the station because of the danger of asbestos and abandoned buildings.  From the shore, you can see lots of mechanical and industrial elements left on the beach.  The beach is populated with tons of fur seals - with lots of fighting going on.  The naturalist staff had to stand at the beach with walking sticks to guard against them attacking.  Crazy!  I could see a few king penguins.  Michael saw a group of them that were molting.  Apparently molting is a very stressful time physiologically, so  you must give them an even wider berth.  I also saw some gentoo penguins on the beach, and Arctic terns soaring around.  I found it very interesting just to watch the wild life activities on the beach from the deck of the ship

A group of molting king penguins - an annual event

Waterfall that Shackleton climbed down to reach Stromness

Fur seals and king penguins

Love this desert - looks a little like our ship in the middle of the deep blue ocean!