Atlantic Odyssey - Gold Harbour

7th April

Gold Harbour is so called because the sun's rays make the cliffs yellow with their light in the morning and evening. However, we had overcast skies in the morning on arrival but the hanging ice cliffs and the Bertrab Glacier were impressive.

Between the King Penguin rookery and the hanging glacier there is a lagoon which you can't see in the photos.

There was a rough surf crashing on to the steep beach and a bumpy swell causing any attempts at photography and video to be tricky. However, the King Penguins took it all in their stride with small flocks seeming to handle the rough looking conditions with ease.

As well as Antarcrtic Fur Seals a number of Southern Elephant Seals were also hauled out on the beach.

Cute Antarctic Fur Seals just mucking about

Atlantic Odyssey - St Andrews Bay - Part 2

6th April 2026

The awesome sight of the King Penguin rookery at St Andrews Bay is just sensory overload.

The main part of the King Penguin rookery

Flipper fights look bruising

Orderly queue returning to the zodiac

As the weather started to close in and thanks to Josh one of the Ornis guides, I managed to get on the last zodiac offering a coastal cruise past the rookery.

Brown Skua (Subantarctic Skua) Stercorarius [antarcticus] lonbergi

Antarctic Fur Seal, they look very cute (and are at this age and younger) but.....

Bandit country, the Antarctic Fur Seals always won, at least they thought they had. This couple survived.

Too close!

Atlantic Odyssey - St Andrews Bay - Part 1

6th April 2026

Having spent a superb morning at Grytviken we cruised to St Andrews Bay and hopefully a zodiac landing at a King Penguin colony.

The scenery en-route to St Andrews Bay was spectacular

Black-browed Albatross

Antarctic Tern

Southern Right Whale

King Penguins

Southern Elephant Seals

King Penguin

Atlantic Odyssey - Grytviken

6th April 2026

After leaving Godthul Bay, the Captain had been hoping that we could have anchored overnight in the bay in front of Grytviken but the weather was not favourable so we spent the night at sea in a sheltered location with the aim of cruising to Grytviken early the next morning to then start zodiac operations ferrying folks to the whaling station and Shackleton's grave. However, the swell and wind in the bay was too rough to safely ferry people using the zodiacs so we waited to see if the wind would drop. 

Approaching Grytviken.

Zodiac operations taking guests back and forth were finally able to start once the weather had become more suitable. Even so the expedition team and some of the crew did a brilliant job in difficult conditions to get us safely back and forth.

Whisky at Shackleton's grave

Antarctic Fur Seals as far as the eye can see

Across to the whaling station

Squabbling and snoozing Antarctic Fur seal pups

Whale catcher 'Petrel'

Winches used to haul the whale carcases on to the flensing plan where the whales body would be cut up for processing

The church built at Grytviken in 1913