Gold Harbour

Gold Har­bour could be cal­led South Geor­gia in a nutsha­le and is a favou­ri­te of many expe­di­ti­on gui­des. As almost always in South Geor­gia, the wild­life is over­whel­ming. The King pen­gu­in colo­ny may not be as lar­ge as in Salis­bu­ry Plain or even St. Andrews Bay, but it is cer­tain­ly lar­ge enough to impress and in the end it is the indi­vi­du­al ani­mal that has the beau­ty, regard­less of the num­bers of its rela­ti­ves around, isn’t it? And of cour­se you have got the Ele­fant seals – usual­ly ple­nty of them – Fur seals and more out of the spe­ci­es list of the island. And all this in front of a grand scenic back­drop: steep cliffs cap­ped by gla­ciers, from which fre­quent ice ava­lan­ches thun­der down. Into the 1970s, Bertrag gla­cier did reach sea level.

In Gold Har­bour, chan­ces to get ashore are cer­tain­ly bet­ter than in St. Andrews Bay, but of cour­se any eas­ter­ly wind or swell can make life quick­ly rather dif­fi­cult. Same with strong wes­ter­ly winds. Quite a few came­ras were alre­a­dy drow­ned in the surf on the beach of Gold Har­bour, and their owners reg­ret­ted not having fol­lo­wed the advice to pack them safe­ly for the landing …

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