Hike for the Chocolate

Well, the wind finally died down enough for us to make a landing. After a hot lunch on board ship, we began boarding zodiacs around 2pm for a shorter day on shore. This is a site where there are a lot of King penguins right on the beach, along with rivers of glacial melt and the most elephant seals that we've seen so far. We heard that there was activity which could lead to an egg exchange, so we headed straight for the colony. The King penguins typically have one egg, which is balance on the feet of one parent while the other is out feeding for about 8-10 days. So one has the egg on its feet tucked up into its pouch while the other is gone. Then the second parent returns and they need to move the egg to the second parent so the first one can go out and feed. This is a process that happens very quickly when it finally happens, but can take hours for them to be comfortable enough to do. This makes sense; after all, the first penguin has developed a relationship with this egg and wants to make sure it's protected so it's a high stress time for the birds. With the help of Jim Danzenbaker, one of the naturalists on board, we were able to identify the couple with the egg that was going to be exchanged. We did see when the one bird lifted its pouch and exposed the egg, but it was quickly hidden again. Then the penguin which had returned from feeding laid down – perhaps to nap – so we decided no egg exchange was imminent and we left.

By this time, it was nearly 3pm, and we wanted to join the hike up the mountains behind us. What's interesting here is that often the mountains come very close to the beach, resulting in narrow beaches – this one was maybe 100 yards wide – and hills and mountains very close by. So we strolled down the beach and up the steep tussock grasses, past elephant seals (which don't attack) and fur seals (which will at least threaten to). The hike up the tussock grasses was a bit steep and muddy, so keeping our footing was sometimes challenging, especially when trying to avoid the seals. Hiking through tussock is like making your way through 6 foot tall grasses which grow out of 2 foot tall by 2 foot diameter round bases, surrounded by growling dogs – and it's muddy to boot. Doesn't that sound like fun? Once out of the tussock grasses, the going was a bit easier. By then, we were hiking on more boggy areas, sometimes where our feet sank several inches into the ground (again, I just cannot overstate the value of having waterproof boots!). Continuing up the mountain, we transitioned to hiking on glaciated rock remnants, meaning there are lots of relatively flat rock pieces scattered everywhere – no other grass or dirt to be seen. It's a bit tricky because there is so much loose rock and not a lot of firm footing.

We finally came to a relative high point where the chocolate was distributed (we deserve some reward for the hike after all!). Then about half the group continued up a final peak – Greg went, but I went only partway and then decided I'm on vacation, not running a marathon! Of course, Greg got more chocolate on top...

After I walked down, I waited for the group to return with another woman (Vicky Cooper), but then we decided to head back together because we couldn't see anyone anymore. We eventually met up with them as they came down as well. The "fun" part was when the leader (Hugh Rose) stopped at the dead rat he found, which Greg helpfully marked on the GPS (along with the rat burrows and trails Hugh had spotted earlier). This is a section of South Georgia which has not had the rat eradication yet, so it's not unexpected to find any. But I could have easily left without seeing that stiff dead rat! They do like to monitor the locations of the rat activity, hence the GPS coordinates.

Once we returned to shore, we took some photos of the elephant seals lounging on the beach throwing sand on themselves. Soon it was time to return to the ship for dinner and a very well deserved night's sleep.