It was time to leave the Falkland Islands for the next exciting adventure. Our next land destination was South Georgia Island, which is owned by Argentina. South Georgia is another sub-Antarctic island. We are re-tracing the explorer Shackleton’s footsteps, albeit in reverse order. At the end of Shackleton’s push to be rescued they sailed a lifeboat across the open ocean from Elephant Island to South Georgia. However, they docked on the wrong side and 2 of Shackleton’s men hiked with him with their torn and tattered clothing and worn out boots in which they put old nails from the lifeboat through the soles for grip on the ice and hiked for 36 hours to the other side where there was a whaling station – the Southern most point where people could be found that could rescue them. They did the hike in winter. Even to this day professional hikers and mountain climbers cannot beat Shackleton’s record across the glacier covered island. In fact, there are around 24 glaciers on this small island.
So how did Shackleton make it across the island so quickly? Tom Creen had fallen through the ice in a lake and was pulled out. They were on the verge of death and hypothermia so they had no choice in their next action.
They decided to slide down the mountain on the final stretch of their journey, which is much too dangerous to do for recreational purposes.
For our day in South Georgia we landed in Fortuna Bay on a beach of angry, bloody (scary) fur seals where we closely followed the expedition leader to a less bitey place. Up onto land at the base of a glacier was a large rookery of king penguins. Baby king penguins are brown and fluffy and look like English Guard hats on feet with beaks.
In the afternoon we landed in a different area of Fortuna Bay and hiked along Shackleton’s route to Strømness Bay, where there are still remains of the abandoned whaling station. We passed Creen’s Lake, where Tom Creen fell in and past the waterfall that the men slid down. It was a delightful and extremely windy hike. On the other end of the ridge near Stromness Bay, we saw a herd of reindeer that were originally introduced by the Norweigans. 
Once again the beach was covered in angry fur seals with the odd penguin dispersed here and there. The rusty ruins of the whaling station also decorated the beach in their brown and orange hues. It had begun to rain this point so we humans likely looked like a giant flock of penguins all huddled together waiting for the cruise ship and the polar cirkle boats to pick us up.
That afternoon and evening on the ship we spent napping and relaxing as the brave non-hiker group from our cruise ship ventured out into the rainstorm to see the whaling station.
It’s Christmas eve, and the scenery is not like normal Christmas eves. In fact, there isn’t even any snow! What kind of place is this, to call it sub-Antarctic? Grytviken is another old and abandoned whaling station on South Georgia. In fact, it was the original whaling station on South Georgia conceived and built by the Norweigans. We land in a beach full of fur seals again, but they are slightly less numerous and interspersed with large-eyed elephant seal pups, which are just as large as the male fur seals (with the scary bitey teeth). 
The colour palette of Grytviken includes crystal blue water, vibrant green grass, warm greys and browns of seal bodies, colder grey mountain peaks capped in white snow, white picket fence, blue sky, and oranges of rust and meadow flowers.
Sir Ernest Shackleton is buried there in the cemetery (where you can pay your respects by splashing whiskey on his grave). Walking past the whaling station ruins we reached the white church, where we had Christmas mass, lead by the captain, and a fellow passenger who was a Lutherian pastor. It was nice, and my first Christmas mass. Music was accompanied by Catherine on the pump organ and Manuela on violin, where people sang in at least 3 different languages all at the same time (most confusing caroling, Ever).
There was a small museum and gift shop at Grytviken as well, which was crowded with other cruise passengers. They had a life-sized model of the James Caird, the life boat that was used by Shackleton and his men to sail between Elephant Island to South Georgia. The museum also had artifacts pertaining to whaling and life at the whaling station. It was quite interesting but we didn’t have much time to look around at everything. We ended our special trip at Grytviken by walking around the bay (past all the sleepy seals) to our Polar Cirkle boats and return to our home, the Fram.
That evening, we sailed along the coast of South Georgia (going around the southern tip of the island) and took a side trip into the Drygelski Fjord, where the mountains jet straight up into jagged points, lifting the glaciers toward the sky. We enjoyed sunset there before another two days at sea.
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