When you could find open space on the beachhead at St. Andrews Bay, not clogged up with elephant seals, you were greeted by gaggles of King Penguins like these, waddling along. Groups of ten to twenty would walk right up to you, look at you and then move on after realizing you aren’t a penguin. The largest colony of Kings in all of South Georgia at 300,000, for this 2 mile stretch of beach, they dotted the whole shoreline and then some. Go further inland and you are greeted by the bulk of the colony. Luckily we were there in November when it wasn’t the “hot” summer months. According to our expedition leaders, the smell of the penguin guano can get quite rank. St. Andrews Bay, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Google Maps Location photo was taken from: 54°26'8.681" S 36°11'16.631" W
After the sun set at Golden Harbour, the clouds were a beautiful purple and red, in the soft afterglow of twilight. While the majority of the Kings were huddled further up the beach at their colony, packs of a few like this were scattered and waddling amongst the shoreline. Add in some elephant seals, southern giant petrels and skuas, and you have your evening ocean view. Our trusty seafaring ship, the Vavilov, lay offshore, sending Zodiacs over to pick everyone up. You can barely make it out, but the small black dot behind it is one of the Zodiacs coming to shore, And while it looks closer that it is, an iceberg off in the distance, was one of the first we saw while in South Georgia. Gold Harbour, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Google Maps Location photo was taken from: 54°37'3.432" S 35°56'31.799" W
For the longest time, I tried to get a shot of a single, lone King, in front of this gorgeous mountain range and glacier. When you come onto the beachhead at St. Andrew’s Bay, there are penguins, seals and whole host of other marine and bird life scattered in the thousands across a densely packed landscape. The King Penguin colony alone was close to 300,000. Down near the beachhead, it is especially crowded, with most of the Kings in groups of ten to twenty or more. So when this adorable King waddled ahead of his group by about ten feet or so, I scrambled into place. And being that I had to scramble quickly, had my exposure setting way too hot, but luckily was able to recover all the details. What was a mistake on my part, turned into one of my favorite photos from the whole trip. St. Andrew’s Bay, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Google Maps Location photo was taken from: Click Here
