Family days out

During the winter we have taken advantage of the lower work load to have a few “family days out”, when we shut down the base and go out for the day. The first one wasn’t a day out but just a few hours out one evening. Taking advantage of the snowy conditions we hiked up the hill to the peak of Gazella (which overlooks the base). It was my first time up there, as I wanted to save a few places on the island to experience for the first time in the winter.  Jerry, Hannah and myself were joined by Craig who decided he didn’t want to be left alone. We climbed over the crest of Gazella and had an impromptu snowball fight on the edge (well it was Hannah and I against Jerry, and he wasn’t really throwing any snowballs). After spending some time watching for whales off the North Cliffs and admiring the views, we headed down the hill into Wanderer Valley where we saw an all white Giant Petrel (know by us as a Spirit Geep). It was sporting a GLS tracker, but we were too slow to catch it and retrieve the data. Maybe next time! 

After summiting Gazella we paused for a photo in front of La Roche the highest peak on the island (Photo by Craig Brown).

Snow ball fight! I got this one dead on! (Photo by Craig Brown).

On the way back we went to see a few Wandering albatross chicks, and I managed to fall in a bog twice, which is a pretty usual occurrence. It’s pretty dangerous walking around the island with snow covering the ground as you can’t see the numerous holes and bogs that can easily swallow you up to your waist. 

A halo going over the bay

Heading through the snow to the east of the island (Photo by Craig Brown).

Our second trip was a full day affair when we left the base and headed to the eastern end of the island, which is rare to say the least for most of us. The only work done on that side of the island is the monthly Wandering Albatross census so it is a very under visited area.  Again there was a fair amount of snow on the ground which led to Jerry falling thigh deep into a bog, but we soldiered on and eventually got past the worst boggy areas. The eastern side of the island is different in that the terrain is a lot more rocky and involves traversing scree paths high up the hill. We headed down the hill to Natural Arch (another place I hadn’t been to before, mainly due to the large number of Fur seals around earlier in the season). We had lovely views of the South Georgia mountains just across Bird Sound (the small stretch of water that separates us from the mainland). There were a few penguins about and one inquisitive King Penguin very nearly decided to make friends with me, but finally decided I was a bit too weird looking and waddled off. We had a picnic on the beach, but didn’t hang around too long as it was very cold. We then traversed along some icy streams, luckily we all had our trusty spikes on, and followed the coast back towards home. 

Natural arch- it was cold! (Photo by Jerry Gillham).

South Georgia mountains through Natural Arch

After exploring the coast for a while we had a long trudge back up to the scree path high above. We went through deserted penguin colonies, which seem ridiculously far from the water and eventually made it back to the path. It was such a nice day that I decided to go up Gandalf, one of the higher peaks on the island. Everyone else decided to join me, and after a little bit of a struggle made it to the peak, where we could simultaneously see the South Georgia mountains as well as looking down over the North Cliffs of the island. The descent mainly involved sliding down the hill, which was great fun but resulted in ripped trousers, and in some cases skin damage from the rocks. We managed to get up some impressive speed heading down some parts, which was at times a bit scary. We all got home relatively unscathed after a great day out. 

The view from the top of Gandalf looking West- Hannah and Craig are in the picture climbing up but it's hard to see.

Hannah on the summit of Gandalf, it's a long way down!

Hannah and I on Gandalf (Photo by Craig Brown).

Our next foray was to the opposite end of the island, with a hike along the beaches, checking for Leopard seals on the way, and then up and over the hill to Johnson Beach. It is the largest beach on the island and seems to be a favourite haunt of Gentoo penguins. The route to Johnson is around the cliffs and requires some well timed dodges between waves. luckily for us the tide was fairly low so none of us ended up with wet feet. There were lots of Gentoos hanging out on the beach (a few hundred at least ) and we went to the place where you get the best view of it all, Johnson Stack.  Looking at it from the beach it just looks like a tall stack of rock with no possible route up (unless you had ropes and at least some proficiency in climbing. However if you can manage to get around the back (only possible in calm conditions at low tide), then you can scramble up to the top. We paused on top to have a few snacks and to take some pictures whilst admiring the view. 

The four of us on the top of Johnson Stack with Gentoo penguins on the beach in the background.

On the way down we spotted a very strange looking Fur seal, it was a sandy brown colour with spots; very different to all of the other Fur seals on the beach. We went a bit closer and Hannah declared it to be a Brindle fur seal. It was a young male seal and seemed happy chilling out on the rocks, I managed to get a few photos of it. Whilst sitting on a rock on the beach I noticed a number of penguin shaped shadows coming up behind me, and just standing there. A quick glance behind revealed a gang of about eight Gentoo penguins slowly creeping up and looking and Jerry and I inquisitively. They soon got bored of us and wandered over to see what Craig was up to taking photographs of some of their compatriots. 

Strange looking Brindle Fur Seal

Watching penguins can be hilarious for no apparent reason one will suddenly start flapping it’s wings madly and honking at the sky, and then starts running around. It seems to be contagious behaviour as often others around it will start joining in. I  could sit there for hours watching them, and can’t wait until they start nesting again, and we have tiny chicks to amuse us. We walked back up over the top of the island back towards base, and had chance to see lots of my Wandering Albatross chicks that are getting ever bigger and are now as large as their parents. 

Gentoo Penguins on Johnson beach

The final trip was not a complete family day out as Craig had to stay behind to mind the generator which has been playing up after having some new parts fitted. We again headed over to the Eastern side of the island and this time went all the way to the end of the island called Farewell Point. There is one lonely chick living out there, so we sat and gave him a bit of company while we had some snacks and then climbed over to the end of the island to look over the cliffs to see if we could spot any Elephant seals in the water below. 

Jerry and I in front of one of the scree paths (photo by Hannah Wood).

 I always like heading out over to that part of the island as you get lovely views of South Georgia and the water is so blue, it almost looks tropical. On the way back we played in the snow, sliding down the hills in ever more extreme ways. When we were nearly back at base we saw two Giant Petrels mating, a sure sign that spring is on its way, although they are definitely a bit early to be thinking about nesting, I guess they are just keen. Up on Wanderer Ridge lots of adult albatross were back and were busy feeding chicks, or spending time preening each other and ignoring their chicks begging calls for more food. The chicks are absolutely insatiable, even before the parent has managed to sit down after regurgitating one lot of nutrition food, the chick is already begging and tapping the beak of the adult. It’s tiring work being a parent!