For all the reasons there are to journey to South Georgia Island, beyond the pristine wildlife that gathers to breed or the triangular mountains that cause the eye to turn skyward, the most enduring of human legacies is that of Shackleton. Visiting King Haakon Bay, the National Geographic Orion followed closely in footsteps of the legend - viewing the very places that Sir Ernest and his men found themselves after their miraculously accomplished journey on the James Caird from Elephant Island.

Guests landed at Peggotty Bluff among the tussock grass blown erratically from the katabatic wind from the near-by glacier, and many chose to hike the landscape that Sir Ernest and his men endeavored across in order to find the whaling station that would send rescue to the men left behind. Crossing glacial valleys and streams while cormorants and sooty albatrosses flew above, one could not help but give into the rawness of the nature surrounding. These rugged, rarely accessed lands are a testament to how unwelcome mankind is in some corners of our world, but we, like the men of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition were quite happy to view them in our time.