Monday, October 27, 2014

Saturday Oct 25

We arrived last night in Grytviken, the largest town on South Georgia (population 20, mostly scientists and government ;)). Unable to stay in the mountains because of the current weather conditions, we decided to go to Grytviken where we obliged to officially register with the local government.

Our plan now is to leave from here by boat tomorrow (Sunday) and go back to Possession Bay were we will arrive in the evening. On Monday, we plan to go back up the abandoned camp with small snow shovels to recover our equipment which is probably buried under snow (we have the GPS coordinates of the camp so we can find it again). We will get our pulkas ready for an early departure from camp on Tuesday morning.

Today we visited Grytviken, essentially a collection of rusted old industrial buildings and shipwrecks: Grytviken was a whaling station between 1904 and 1964. Originally we planned to visit Ernest Shackleton’s grave at the end of our adventure but fate had it otherwise. Since we were already in the town, we spent time today in the tiny church cemetery where his grave is located.

Our team of nine in the attached photo on Shackleton’s grave”.

 Arriving in Grytviken last night

 Fur seals, mom and pup – Grytviken

 Fur seal – Grytviken

 King penguins in Grytviken

You can follow the expedition on:

- Youtube

- Twitter

- Facebook

- Pax Arctica's website

You can also follow the team's position in real time here

1 comment:

Susan said...

Enjoy the adventure! You have posted nice pictures of southern elephant seals not fur seals. Good luck with the crossing!
Susan