First landing on South Georgia at Cooper Bay, normally not accessible due to waves. We landed here to see Macaroni penguins, one of the few places they are accessible. They nest on high rock cliffs normally, and are very difficult to get to, but we could get close to these. They are not named after the noodle but rather an Italian "dandy" as they were called in the 1700s or 1800s.
We also had our first encounter with fur seals. Unlike all the other seals we encountered, these seals were smaller and could move fast on land. The little bastards would growl at you and charge like a small dog in a bad mood. And they have lots of sharp they like to bare. This was instinctive behavior and they never bit any of our group but they warned us about it. All we did was yell and growl back at them and they would stop charging. But it was annoying, they'd charge you after you walked by or when you weren't looking.
The fur seal was hunted almost to extinction for the furs.. They protected it at some point and they have come back with a vengeance in South Georgia.
Next: more penguins. And I mean more...
King penguin who approached me trying to figure out what kind of penguin I was
Macaroni penguins, zoom in on the head and notice the macaroni feathers
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