Today’s plan was to land at Fortuna Bay home to another large king penguin colony, although not as large as the previous day’s hoard at St. Andrew’s Bay, and a sizeable fur seal population. In addition, for those interested, there was going to be an opportunity to hike across the island to Stromness Bay.  The hike traced part of the route that Shackleton and his men took to reach help once they landed on South Georgia. Each of us had to chose between visiting more wildlife or taking a hike- unfortunately there was not time to do both. The group visiting with the wildlife in Fortuna Bay would be spending a couple of hours there and reboarding the ship, which would move down the coast to Stromness Bay where it would meet the hikers several hours later.

As much as I like hiking, I decided that I wanted to spend my time visiting with the wildlife, and more specifically, the elephant seals which had captured my affections. I calculated that I could always hike but my opportunity to observe elephant seals in the wild would be severely limited in the future. Arriving at Fortuna Bay we were thrilled to be informed that the conditions were favorable for landing. As a group we were all now fairly efficient at gearing up and loading into the zodiacs so it was not long before we were all ashore and the hikers, about a third of the passengers, moved out. Looking around our landing site I found myself on another broad expansive beach. Inland about 400 meters was a tidal pool that almost ran the whole length of the beach. The water was busy with activity, including elephant seals! The landscape beyond the tidal pool was carpeted by a thick green tussock and dotted with fur seals and the occasional pile up of what looked to be mature elephant seals. Clearly I had made the right decision!

There were numerous groups of fur seal families scattered all over the beach and the land beyond the tide pool. We had to walk carefully around them.

Matt, one of the staff, had laid out a trail to the king penguin colony, a few kilometers away from the beach nestled against a cliff wall. Strings of penguins were either moving to or from the colony, little dots of black and white against the brown and green landscape. I have continued to be amazed and impressed at the amount of distance the penguins, with their stubby legs and awkward gaits, cover on land. The colony was alive with noise, it too hosting quite a large number of unmoulted and moulting chicks. Several adelescents, sporting bizarre combinations of brown feathers and adult plumage, curious about these large stick figures that were surrounding their home, came over to investigate allowing us a close look at their messy in-between state. Similar to the previous day, I spent some time, maybe 20 minutes, observing the penguins, before heading back to find the elephant seals. Matt had mapped out a new route for us to return avoiding some particularly territorial fur seals. Armed with my ski pole and determined to stake out some elephant seals, I set off back to the tidal pool.

Some adolescent penguins came over to check out the funny large stick figures in red that were watching them so intently.

I was lucky in that the seals I had seen in the water were still swimming around when I retraced my steps to the tidal pool. Unlike their bulky awkwardness on land, the elephant seals moved in sleek powerful ripples as they swam through the water. There behavior in the water was not too different than that on land however.  Even in the water, occasionally two bulls would rear up and bump bodies trying to intimidate each other. At one point there were three of them in the water, swimming around, bellowing, bumping into each other, then continuing on their way. I suspect I spent about 40 minutes standing there watching them, keeping a wary eye out for any nearby aggressive seal furs at the same time.

Humans watching penguins! I’m the first yellow hood in the line. We stayed behind the orange poles that the staff laid out to make sure we did not interfere with the animals.

Soon it was time to board the zodiacs and head back to the ship so we could head to Stromness Bay and meet the hikers. The beach at Stromness Bay hosts a large collection of fur seals so we were going to have an opportunity to spend more time with them. After lunch I went and stationed myself on the bridge to watch the staff set up the landing site and keep an eye out for the hikers. Consequently I overheard the radio conversation between David, who was on the bridge, and the staff on shore, discussing the landing conditions. Apparently there were a lot of newly birthed fur seals all over the beach and the males were being exceptionally aggressive, making a landing there potentially dangerous to both us and the seals. In the end the landing was called off, but the hikers still had to be collected. I watched through the binoculars as the group emerged from behind a hill and approached the beach area. The staff had them bunch up in a tight line for the march through the fur seal territory to the zodiacs. Two staff members went ahead and mapped out a route that avoided the alpha males as much as possible. Two staff members walked alongside the line, one on each side to watch the animals’ behavior as the line passed and two staff members brought up the rear. As I watched their progress, I did notice several animals challenging the crowd of people invading their territory, but retreating when the staff presented the poles or made noises at them. Finally everyone got to the zodiacs and got on board.

Elephant seals in the water having a bit of a “I’m tougher than you are” battle.

Because of the beach condition, David changed the planned landing to a zodiac excursion. Those who had stayed in Fortuna Bay to look at wildlife headed down to get geared up and load the boats. Unfortunately I was starting to come down with the horrible cold that was circulating around the ship so I decided to stay onboard and continue to view the shoreline through binoculars; I had some elephant seals in my sights and was watching them move around. The fact that it had started to rain and hail only made my decision easier. I enjoyed watching the zodiacs tool around as they were being followed by some of the numerous fur seals that were sporting in the water, curious about the noise of the propeller. I spent the afternoon drinking tea to stay hydrated in the hopes of fending off the cold beefore it took hold and peering at shore.