82 Australian Geographic
A
N AUDIENCE OF curious wildlife greeted us
and our kayaks in Cooper Sound on the
north-eastern tip of South Georgia Island.
Fur seals in their thousands surfing offshore
reefs like crowded point breaks poked their
heads up to peer at us as we passed.
Further along the coast in Gold Harbour, we paddled past a
beach packed with noisy penguins. Their raucous cries were
bouncing off the dramatically serrated glacier behind them, and,
for us, this tuneless wall of sound meant another night of wear-
ing ear plugs as we tried to sleep in our tent.
We were deep in the South Atlantic, on day 10 of our
circumnavigation of the island by sea kayak. We had already
survived furious winds and wild seas, passed surf crashing onto
stranded icebergs, and found gaps in reefs where the smallest
mistake could mean a possibly deadly capsize. For us this was a
cold and stormy world with treacherous potential everywhere
- but for a menagerie of perfectly adapted wildlife it is an oasis.
While searching for somewhere to land, we found ourselves
among a group of elephant seal bulls, puffing and sighing in annoy-
ance at the disturbance. These massive beasts weigh up to 3 tonnes
and are capable of carelessly crushing a kayak. While sheer size
makes them worthy of much respect, their movements and behav-
iour also make them extraordinarily fascinating creatures.
We continued past rocky capes and sandy beaches, looking
for some vacant real estate where we could camp between the
steep green tussock slopes and beaches thick with wildlife.
Crowd control. King penguins (above) return each year to breed in the
subantarctic colony where they were born, the biggest of which is on
South Georgia. John Jacoby (opposite) came face to face with a male
southern elephant seal – the world’s largest carnivore – in Gold Harbour.Each penguin species has its niche here. The gentoos were found
in the hills, climbing to where their chicks waited to be fed.
Macaroni penguins played in the shallows, getting tumbled about
in the waves before hopping up the beach in gangs. And
the kings stood together appearing regal – except for those that
were moulting, which looked dishevelled while waiting for their
feathers to be renewed.I
HAD WANTED TO visit South Georgia since I first found
out about it three decades ago, in my early 20s. The island
is located 1800km east of Cape Horn, at the southern end
of South America, and 1500km north-east of the tip of the
Antarctic Peninsula. Mountain ranges drip with glaciers along
the island’s entire 170km length.
Lashed by storms and pounded by ocean swells rolling unhin-
dered from the frozen continent to the south, it is certainly a
wild and remote place. But it’s also enticing and exciting for
anyone with a thirst for adventure.
I had attempted to organise numerous expeditions to this
enigmatic island in the past, but the costs and logistics had always
defeated me. In 2013, with the prospect of our 50th birthdays
before us, my friend John Jacoby and I decided to make it Aptenodytes patagonicus