Matthew

Our approach to a mist laden South Georgia had ensured that the island’s rugged peaks had only slowly revealed themselves. However, now we were ashore and staying in Husvik, we were afforded the opportunity of getting in amongst these mountains. The group has been split in to its two separate ‘fires’, Resolution and Beagle, and both set about exploring the rocky terrain that surrounded us. Those of us in Beagle scrambled up towards The Karakata Pass, somewhere we would be looking to cross during our relocation to Fortuna Bay. Atop the pass we could see the Konig Glacier slowly emptying is load, carving out the landscape as it went. This was also the first time we caught a glimpse of Fortuna Bay’s King Penguin colony, our soon to be neighbours. Though, on this occasion, we did not carry down into Fortuna Bay but rather followed a ridge round to the Stromness Valley. From the ridge we looked down upon another relic of South Georgia’s Whaling past, the rusting long time abandoned Whaling Station of Stromness. Having spent a considerable time gaining height our descent was decidedly quicker. We sped down the snow covered slope back into Husvik.

The following morning, with Resolution having gone ahead to Fortuna, Beagle snaked its way up the coast towards the headland. The sun was out, accompanied by a slight sea breeze, making the journey a comfortable one. We sat down to lunch by a lake before returning back to the ’Old Manager’s Villa’ at Husvik, which we needed to clean up before following the others to Fortuna Bay tomorrow. That evening Pat took all the equipment on to Pelagic Australis which had been anchored in the bay for the last couple of days. She was sailing around to Fortuna to off-load our main stores and equipment tomorrow morning.

We rose early, looking to make a swift getaway, and left with a brisk pace back towards The Karakata pass. The sun had remained from the day before but this time there was no cooling wind and this made for heavy going. Once over the top we were met by Ade and Ken who guided us across the Konig Glacier and through to the camp they had established the previous night. Our path took us close to the Fortuna Bay penguin colony, apparently some 15,000 strong. We finally arrived at our new base camp mid afternoon with the others waiting for us and we began preparations for the days ahead of us at Fortuna Bay.