The last Shackleton-type thing we did was to follow in his footsteps across South Georgia. He and his guys had to land on the western side of the island and spent three days hiking across mountains and glaciers to the eastern side whaling stations. So we hiked in their footsteps... Kind of. We did the last few hours of his walk from Fortuna Bay to Stromness, no glaciers but there was a steep snowfield to descend. And we didn't cross the ridge exactly where they did, we went the easy way. Hey, excluding me, there was zero climbing experience among the participants, including the leader, so what could I expect?
It was refreshing to get out on even a moderate hike, only the second on the trip. It took 3 hours, but only because we waited for some very, very slow hikers in the group, it's probably less than two hours for anyone with hiking experience and reasonably fit.
After that we went to Prion island and observed birds. Flying birds. Can't remember if they were skuas or petrels, but we got some pics of a trade off where the male takes over brooding and apparently it was the first trade off since the egg was laid given the size of the chic (bird experts with us, remember). In the background two younger birds were doing a courting dance where they stand with their wings out. This goes on for YEARS before lifetime mates are selected. Photo below, you have to zoom in to see it properly.
The bird watchers in our group thought they had died and gone to heaven to witness this. Most of the birds in South Georgia just about disappeared when rats were introduced inadvertently from visiting ships. The good news is that they have just finished successfully eradicating rats from South Georgia. It took a huge effort, years and very expensive.
Group walking up from Fortuna Bay, our ship visible in background
Birdsong on Prion Island. Two nesting on left, one dancing in front of another on right
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