South Georgia Photosafari (IV)

We stayed in Grytviken for just over 36 hours as its such an interesting and historic place. One of our groups Grandfather and Father had worked at the Grytviken whaling station in the early 1900’s so it was fascinating to hear some of the stories that had been passed down the generations to him.

 We explored the old whaling station, the church, the museum, hiked up a hill, and paid our respects at Sir Ernest Shackleton’s grave.  We were invited to look around the BAS research ship the Sir David Attenborough which was alongside at King Edward Point, a very impressive ship and a BBQ with the crew followed on.

From Grytviken we headed southeast to explore the Nordenskjöld glacier. You could not imagine a more perfect day for getting up close to the face of a glacier. Windless, blue sky days are very rare in this usually harsh environment.

Alec stopped the boat so a few brave people could do a glacier swim! Then we gently cruised the whole face of the glacier with drone following.  The air was so still you could hear the noise of the ice air popping in the water and the occasional loud gunshot crack as the glacier moved or calved added to the surreal atmosphere.

The sunlight danced and sparkled on the “million year” ice and we were all struck by its beauty and scale.  Were we really seeing this with our own eyes?  It was too good, too perfect to be true, but the drone witnessed what we saw.

Rick Tomlinson

Yachting Photographer