A dazzling gold reflected off thousands of king penguin chests as the sun broke through scattered clouds this morning. We had arrived at the aptly named Gold Harbor. Majestic penguins towering over three feet tall surrounded us as we sat on an iridescent black sand beach (shown in today's photo). Nearby, dozens of young fur seals cavorted while juvenile male elephant seals jousted, slamming their immense bodies into one another with tremendous force. We were overwhelmed and awed.
Continuing along the dramatic South Georgia coastline we came to our next stop of the day, St. Andrew's Bay. This bay is home to the largest king penguin colony on South Georgia, with estimates of over 39,000 breeding pairs. Braving rain and wind we ventured up a sloping hill for an incomparable view of penguins as far as the eye could see. Then out of the fog came a small herd of Scandinavian reindeer. As they cantered by, we counted at least seven of these deer, which were introduced in 1910 by early whalers for sport and food. Today there are roughly 2,000 reindeer in isolated areas of the main island. Our adventure continues…
