Fortuna Bay, South Georgia - 02:00 am

09 Dec 2008

Our captain attempted on two occasions to land us on Salisbury plain - the site of one of the largest King Penguin rookeries in the region. But that storm would not let us go. We would most likely be dashed on the rocks if we tried, so we had to abandon that thought and move on. We sailed further east to Fortuna Bay, hoping for some shelter. We were greeted with a land of snow, brought by the storm and the wind dropped enough that we could finally land.

A completely different landscape. A new world. A dream.

We’ve never seen anything like this. A monochrome landscape broken by blue and a dash of orange. We didn’t know where to begin. We tramped through deep snow, slipping a bit under the weight of our equipment, eyes round and speechless.

We are the objects under scrutiny from the penguins as the wind whips up the snow.

After a few close calls with territorial fur seals who didn’t take kindly to us, we got past the danger. We got relatively skilled at being bigger, stronger and fiercer than these males, claiming territory for us while Pierre filmed. Once we got further inland we could relax with the penguins who were simply curious.

Pierre trying to decide where to start filming in this mass of penguins

We came to the main rookery and were blown away by the enormous number of King penguins here - all doing their own thing in this frigid landscape. All completely comfortable with our presence. Pierre and I are both used to having to slowly creep up on wiildlife to get close. This is remarkable.

And still they come. A small welcoming party

Work it baby! Oh ya. That’s perfect.

The chicks are incredibly curious. They come running to us to see what we are. We both got exploratory pecks. We’re doing our best not to touch the wildlife - but the wildlife keeps touching us!

Around 3000 prs of King Penguins with their chicks form a city in the bowl of this valley

We climbed up a steep and immensely slippery slope to get a good view of the entire rookery. A mind-blowing sight. The sounds, the sights, the immense beauty of the surroundings. Definitely worth the bruises collected to get here. We had to head back to the ship although we wanted to stay, so we slid back down the slope and trudged back. Our faces, hands and feet were freezing, but we were glowing.

Have a look and listen to the sound of thousands of penguins on our podcast

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