Gold harbour is a beautiful location- an amphitheatre of hanging glaciers, vertical cliffs and the towering snow covered peaks of Mount Paterson surrounding a huge curved beach full of penguins, fur seals and elephant seals. We had the second landing so disembarked at 0900am, there was a little bit of sleet in the air but the skies were brightening and the sun came out to make this a really warm and enjoyable visit. As the beach was almost full of wildlife we couldn't walk too far as we have to stay 5m from the animals albeit they can approach us. We walked slowly through watching the large populations of king and gentoo penguins, a number of giant petrels tucking into a dead seal - some of their heads were red having emerged from deep inside the seal. The petrels squabbled amongst themselves and often ran in with wings spread out looking very prehistoric as they came in - out in the bay having eaten before we arrived was a white morph petrel. The funniest sight though was of a gentoo penguin chasing a petrel up the beach (today's picture). I then sat for ages on the shore watching the penguins go in and out of the sea - the funniest were the half molted youngsters who were practicing swimming but emerging from the ocean, trying to stand with some difficulty and looking very bedraggled!
In the warm sunshine I cannot think of a more entertaining way to spend an hour or so - I slowly meandered my way back to the zodiac departure point and watched a giant elephant seal arrive and due to his size negotiate a favourable resting spot on the beach causing others to relocate! I also watched some flipper sand on their backs to keep cool - these leviathans were definitely bigger that the ones we saw at Peninsular Valdez, Argentina.
Back on board the ship relocated to Coopers Bay named after First Lieutenant Robert Cooper from Cooks ship the Resolution in 1775.
After lunch I emerged onto deck 5 and could see whale blows followed by a whales tail, the ship didn't stop but later in the journey everything was brought to a halt by a big blue whale right in front of the ship - it was an amazing sight and I was able to get a couple of pictures of its blow holes.
At Coopers Bay we disembarked as one of the first groups for a zodiac cruise to see the macaroni penguins (photo for 31/12/14), with their lovely yellow crests. They were nesting on a rocky outcrop and only visible from a zodiac, above them were light mantled sooty albatrosses who were nesting in the grasses on the cliff and soaring above us - (photo for 1/1/15). As we went around the bay we saw seals, penguins in the water and on the beach. Interestingly a king penguin stood beside a gentoo and a chinstrap allowing us to see the size differences. With the sun behind it, making pictures more difficult, there was also a rare leucistic chinstrap penguin i.e one who has no pigment and where it should be black it is actually blond - a phenomena in 1/40000 penguins but again has little impact on their survival.
This was a truly magical day - great weather, great calm seas and phenomenal opportunities to enjoy and appreciate the wildlife and their daily antics. The day was topped off by cruising up a fjord to a glacier while we had dinner. The glacier and surrounding mountain tops looked spectacular with the sun shining on it but you do remember you are in the Southern oceans when you go outside its very nippy!
I had not expected the mountain formations in South Georgia which had been formed by tectonic activity - it resembled the alps but probably with more permanent snow.