Whaling Station

An Elephant Seal Pup

The following day we arrived in Grytviken, the largest settlement on South Georgia which has a resident population of 4, but with the British Antarctic Survey huts can accommodate 18. The sea was calm and the water a brilliant turquoise. We layered up, put on our dry suit and pogies (large paddling gloves) and headed out to the back deck ready for our first kayak of the trip. After climbing down a rope ladder from the ship and across a zodiac we slid into our kayak and started paddling. There are 39 passengers on the Polar Pioneer and almost as many crew. The Kayaking group totalled 9 including ourselves, so we had 4 doubles and a single. Our group leader Al took us off across the bay and around King Edward Point. We avoided the fur seals and penguins and headed around the coast. At one point we had clearly invaded the territory of a rather possessive Elephant Seal, so Nicole and I paddled swiftly whilst the seal (about the same size as two Land Rovers) came up behind us, remaining just a metre or two off the back of the kayak for sometime. 



We had a calmer paddle back to Grytviken and pulled up onshore to wander around the rusty remains of the whaling station, where thousands of whales and seals were processed into oil. The huge storage tanks for the oil were still in place as were many of the remains of the processing plant. We wandered around the small museum, the Norwegian Church and up on the hill to Shackleton’s grave, which overlooked the bay, before paddling back to Ship. In the afternoon we headed for Godthul a large bay about two hours south of Grytviken. We went out for our second paddle of the day and around the bay where the curious fur seal pups came out to play in the water jumping and diving around us, occasionally knocking the bottom of the kayak. After a stop for some hot chocolate the angry older fur seals on land didn’t want to let us past, so we warmed ourselves poised on the rocks at the waters edge. More King Penguins, Gentoos and Albatrosses passed us by as it grew late and we paddled home back across the bay.