The penguin kingdom

The name "South Georgia Island" means nothing until you see it for yourself - then you'll never forget it. It's home to penguins and seals and it was the second stop on Toast Coetzer's journey to Antarctica.

- Toast Coetzer

The snow-capped peaks of South Georgia Island appeared on the horizon after 1450 km on the open sea from the Falkland Islands, where we last saw land. An island as remote as this is only discovered by accident. It was first seen in 1675 when a ship sailing around the southernmost tip of South America was blown off course during a storm.

Exactly a century later, Captain James Cook and some of his men on board the HMS Resolution were the first to step ashore. They fired a salvo and claimed the island in the name of King George III of England. But they were actually in search of Antarctica and when they sailed around the bottom of the island, they named it Cape Disappointment.

In the late 1700s and through the 1800s, South Georgia was visited by seal hunters and whalers. This rugged bunch became the first people to overwinter. What motivated them? The profits they could make by selling the fur, skin and fat of the animals they hunted.

South Georgia is sickle-shaped, about 170 km long and never wider than 40 km. There are glaciers in the deep valleys and 13 peaks higher than 2000 m. (Mount Paget is the highest at 2934 m). The prevailing wind blows from the south-west; man and animal can find shelter on the north-eastern coast. All the old whaling stations were built here, and penguins, Antarctic fur seals and elephant seals gather on the open beaches in early spring to mate, lay eggs or birth their young.

Our group of nearly 80 keen wildlife photographers had these super colonies in our sights. About 20 other guests and I were travelling with Guts Swanepoel and Pangolin Photo Safaris; the rest of the group was made up of mostly Americans travelling with Muench Workshops, also a photography tour company. We were on board the MV Ushuaia and we'd departed from Ushuaia in Argentina more than a week ago.

The only problem was Covid-19 had also boarded the ship...