My Travels Around the World

Tag: Sir Ernest Shackleton

Fortuna Bay, Stromness Harbor and Prion Island: Day 11

Saturday Nov 4, 2017

Fortuna Bay

The hikers among us were up early to walk in Shackleton’s footsteps on his last leg of his epic crossing of South Georgia, up the mountain and down the other side. The hike was 4 miles long with 1000 feet of elevation over tussock grass, snow, mud, grass, gravel, boulders, glacial plains with streams and varying depths of snow.  We dropped them off at Fortuna Bay and then continued on our way to Stromness Harbor.

Bay of Stromness

We opted instead to go up to the bridge, where Eduardo was drinking his mate (an Argentinian green tea) , and where we watched us sail into the Bay of Stromness with its whaling station. From the bridge we could see some small black dots in the snow, moving down the glacier.  This was some of our people, at the end of their hike, sliding down the snow the way Shackleton and his men did.

Grytviken and the Bay of Godthul: South Georgia Day 8

Wednesday, Nov 1, 2017

Grytviken

Grytviken is the old whaling station on South Georgia Island. Some of the staff from South Georgia Heritage Trust, which runs the station and the museum, came on board to tell us a bit about whaling. They joined us for breakfast and could not get enough fruit. When you live in such isolation, every visitor is a gift. After breakfast we all went ashore to hike around, tour the station and visit the South Georgia Museum.

And as we pulled into the cove, we could see what was left of the station. Old rusted ships. The buildings. The rusted containers that once held the whale oil. And the cemetery.  Not just any cemetery.  But more on that later.

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