Antarctica, South Georgia & the Falkland Islands

Elsehul Bay – This beautiful bay is home to thousands of fur seals as well as macaroni penguins, the most numerous of all penguin species. Listen for the high-pitched trumpeting of king penguins amid the magnificent sounds of marine mammals that echo in the bay.

 

Salisbury Plain – Two glaciers flank Salisbury Plain on South Georgia’s north coast. Here, more than 200,000 king penguins congregate to breed, and you are greeted by one of the more remarkable sights—and sounds—on Earth.

 

Stromness Bay – This now abandoned whaling station is the site of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his party’s arrival after crossing the island’s glaciers on foot. Stromness offers views of the cliffs from which the adventurer and his companions descended.

 

Grytviken – Go ashore and explore here, discovering the ruins of this once-active whaling station. The cemetery holds a special fascination, as it is here that Shackleton is buried. Walking along the coast, you may spy seabirds, penguins, and marine mammals.

 

Gold Harbour – At the foot of the Bertrab Glacier, Gold Harbour is often referred to as the “jewel in the island’s crown.” In addition to a large king penguin colony, you are likely to see elephant and fur seals, gentoo penguins, giant petrels, and with luck, some light-mantled albatross.

Brown Bluff – Located on the Antarctic Peninsula, Brown Bluff rises 2,450 feet above an ash beach littered with bizarrely shaped boulders. Some 20,000 pairs of Adelie, and hundreds of gentoo penguins, congregate here to breed. Skuas and pintado petrels nest near the top of the cliff and kelp gulls fill the air with perpetual sound and motion. 

 

Devil Island – This island, just one mile long and located in the Erebus and Terror Gulf, was named for its twin horn-like peaks. Here you will find a thriving Adelie penguin colony and a short hike into the hills offers magnificent views of the Antarctic continent and surrounding islands. 

 

Paulet Island – Paulet is the site where the crew of C.A. Larsen’s ship, Antarctic, were stranded for ten months when their ship was caught and crushed in the ice in 1903. The small stone hut they built can still be seen today, surrounded by a huge colony of breeding Adelie penguins, as well as Antarctic shags. 

 

Gourdin Island – Located at the western extremity of Antarctic Sound this island is home to nesting chinstrap, gentoo, and Adelie penguins. Here you will also find a host of predators and scavengers—skuas, snowy sheathbills, giant petrels, and kelp gulls. Weddell seals are also frequently found hauled out on the surrounding ice.

 

Deception Island – Deception Island is a flooded caldera, formed by a gigantic volcanic eruption. As you approach Port Foster through Neptune’s Bellows, a channel just wide enough for the ship to navigate, southern fulmars and pintado petrels soar overhead. Step ashore on black sand beaches to visit one of the world’s largest chinstrap penguin colonies. Here you are surrounded by a cacophony of braying calls and the perpetual motion of seemingly endless columns of penguins entering and exiting the surf.