We were at anchor by Salisbury Plain at 5am but we had a leisurely start as we were the second landing at @ 9 .00am, the first landing was off at 0730am - landings are split because they can only have a maximum of 100 people ashore at once and we are 111.
Finally when we disembarked it was worth it and there was no rush as the thousands of King penguins weren't going anywhere. We walked with Franz to the edge of the colony - today's picture - and just listened to them talking to each other. There were lots of very curious chicks from last year in their brown woolly coats - some who were slowly loosing their baby feathers and getting their adult plumage were the penguin equivalent of the ugly duckling! Watching the penguins and all the new fur seal pups was just enchanting and 90 minutes whizzed past.
Today was a tad nippy 0 degrees C with a slight snow flurry in the air so leaving your hand out of your glove for too long while taking photos was not a good idea!
Back on board we set sail for Stromness and our next disembarkation point - an old derelict whaling station. This afternoon we got to stretch our legs and we walked up a wide glacial U shaped river valley to Shackletons waterfall. So named because this was the waterfall that Shackleton and his small party walked down to raise the alarm at the whaling station for the rescue of his men on elephant island.
On our way out we ran the gauntlet through lots of fur seals - males, females and pups - you just have to stand your ground, look big - well bigger than them, clap your hands or as I found grunt and growl better than they did!! Safely through we walked across the marshy areas, small tributaries and gravel of the valley floor passing a small colony of gentoo penguins as we went which were high on a small ridge. John and I left after taking a few pictures as a walk back and photos without the obligatory line of red coats was just nice. We passed nesting antarctic terns - who dived at you if you got too close - and saw a pair of rare pintail duck - endemic to the area and albeit they eat algae and grasses they are also partial to meat! We watched gentoo penguins making their way back to the colony some having to also, like us, run the gauntlet of the fur seals. Back near the beach we lingered watching the baby fur seals before getting back on the boat - John left on an earlier one than me - as we were heading back a big catabatic wind came off the glacier so my zodiac sheltered behind the ship until it died down so we could safely dock at the ships door! Safely back I warmed up with a hot shower - but we had a great day with lots of sunshine and blue skies this afternoon.