On Shackleton’s trail

I knew nothing about South Georgia, beyond what was in the trip brochure, when I boarded the MV Hondius for an expedition covering Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falkland Islands. Over a few days, I learned about the impressive diversity of wildlife and historical sites on the island. South Georgia is part of the British “overseas territory” (one of the things they call their colonies these days) of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. As its population is of the order of 20 people, it is governed from Stanley, the capital of The Falkland Islands. For a cold, far South remote island, the amount and diversity of wildlife one finds there is extraordinary. South Georgia is also the resting place of Sir Ernest Shackleton, one of the heroic figures of Antarctic exploration.

Shackleton and Endurance

The Hondius expedition crew set up a viewing of Shackleton, a two-part miniseries with Kenneth Branagh playing “The Boss” for our entertainment and education. Shackleton was already a hero to the British public due to his previous adventures on the Discovery and Nimrod expeditions when he undertook the journey that made him a legend. As Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott had already reached the South Pole, Shackleton needed to do something different – he planned to make an overland crossing of Antarctica via the South Pole in 1914. He advertised that he wanted men for a dangerous, harsh and low-paid job with glory to be had in the event of success. They set off on the ship, Endurance, as the First World War was beginning. Another ship, Aurora, would pick up the trans-continental party once they made the crossing. Endurance got trapped in Antarctic ice before it could arrive at Vahsel Bay, where the trans-continental party would disembark. The crew was forced to abandon Endurance and observe from their camp on the ice as the ice slowly crushed her over months. 

Elephant Island

Once Endurance was lost, Shackleton and his men set off on three lifeboats to return to civilisation and made landfall on the remote Elephant Island. Shackleton left Frank Wild, his second-in-command, in charge of his men there, while he set off with five men to South Georgia, 1,300km away. Point Wild upon Elephant Island was our first stop after leaving Antarctica. We did a zodiac cruise to see the birds, seals and icebergs. What struck us was the inhospitability of the place – just harsh, steep rock upon which no vegetation grew and waves crashed loudly. How could anyone imagine surviving there long enough to be rescued?

Chinstrap penguins had climbed up to perch upon vertical-looking cliffs. We also saw skuas and snowy sheathbills (lovingly called “shit chickens” as they consume penguin faeces). There were also seals visible on the rocks. Meat was easily available for the Endurance crew.

Leaving Elephant Island, we had a few sea days before we reached South Georgia. The expedition crew organised a treasure hunt based on Shackleton’s journey. We were given some papers which we would fill with quotes from Shackleton’s writings. We would get the quotes mostly by talking to crew members in the right order and answering their questions, most of which pertained to the Endurance expedition. 

St. Andrews Bay & Gold Harbour

Captain Frank Worsley navigated Shackleton’s lifeboat, the James Caird, from Elephant Island to South Georgia. Shackleton, Worsley and Tom Crean crossed the mountains of South Georgia on foot to arrive at Stromness whaling station. After a few attempts, Shackleton returned to Elephant Island to rescue everyone he had left behind, resulting in the most famous survival story in human exploration.

Our first stop in South Georgia was St. Andrews Bay. As we entered the bay and approached the beach, the power of the telescopic lenses that the birders and photographers brought with them became apparent. Kilometres away, one could make out the mass of king penguins on the shore. Long before I could identify penguins as distinct forms with the naked eye, I could hear and smell them. 

Upon landing at St. Andrews, we encountered groups of elephant seals, one of the creatures I was most excited to see on this trip. We gave them a wide berth and did a small hike to a viewpoint. We got a dramatic view of a colony of 100,000 nesting king penguins. The chicks were covered in brown feathers that caused them to resemble kiwi fruit. As they matured, they would shed their brown feathers, with waterproof adult feathers appearing below them from the bottom to the top. Towards the end of their growth, one would see almost-adults with funny hairstyles on their heads.

Gold Harbour was a couple of days afterwards; it also had king penguins and elephant seals. The weather had changed from sunny to snow, which gave the place a dramatically distinct vibe. Gold Harbour was so filled with penguins that you could turn around and find that a penguin had walked up right next to you. The racket made by king penguins is really something.

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One of the guides, Pierre, estimated the largest seal I saw to be around 1 tonne, much smaller than an adult male elephant seal, weighing 4 tonnes. These were all juveniles; I would need to visit at a different time of the year to see the adults.

Grytviken

South Georgia was originally settled by humans with a Norwegian whaling and seal hunting station at Grytviken in the early 20th century. A few other such stations sprung up on South Georgia. These activities were ended in the mid 20th century as whalers’ success severely depleted the population of whales. Today, animal conservation and tourist money have taken over as the main sources of revenue for South Georgia. We were informed that we had paid the government £200 per person to enjoy the nature and history of South Georgia – it was money put to good use. 

Shackleton is buried in Grytviken, as he died nearby of illness on his fourth expedition, on board the Quest. The ashes of his right-hand man, Frank Wild, are also buried there. It was a snowy day as we landed at Grytviken. There were some decaying boats, a little museum, an “end of the world” post office, a church and old structures related to the whaling industry at the site. 

I walked away from the village towards the graveyard. Along the path to the graveyard were fur seals, baby elephant seals fighting each other on the beach, gentoo penguins and yellow-billed pintail ducks. 

Antarctic fur seals came in roughly three sizes: the adult males were big, upto 2m long and weighing around 130kg; adult females were much smaller, upto 1.4m long and only around 30kg; then there were the babies, which were smaller than the females. The adult males threatened human passersby, but could be scared off if one stood their ground. I arrived at the graveyard with one other guest from Hondius, who left after a few minutes.

I closed the gate of the graveyard to prevent animals from coming in and then stuck around. The newest grave was from 1982, that of an Argentinian soldier who died in the Falklands War (more on this in the next post); South Georgia, governed from Stanley in the Falklands, was taken over by both the Argentinians and, later, the British as part of their respective war efforts. The graveyard had quite an aesthetic. Snow fell. For about fifteen minutes the only sounds were varied eerie noises – grunts, wheezes, squeals and screeches – made by the fur seals. It was hard for me to tell from the noise whether it was made by an adult or a pup; some of the most blood-curdling noises were made by the little ones. I relished being the sole living human at that weird place.

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Biosecurity

Prior to making our first trip out of the Hondius, we were given high boots, along with instructions for their use. The boots, as well as our outer clothing and bags were to be cleaned prior to landfall, with particular concern for any seeds. Upon returning from landfall, we should wash the boots with the disinfectant, Virkon.

There is a serious effort to prevent the introduction of non-native life to the places that we visited, that depended so much on their biodiversity. Human ships introduced rats to South Georgia. With concerted efforts, they were eradicated from the island in 2019. We also saw dandelions in St. Andrews Bay and elsewhere; they did not belong there. At South Georgia, we had multiple biosecurity checks, with inspectors looking carefully into the treads of our boots and any velcros in our clothing to check that there were no seeds or animal faeces being brought over from elsewhere.

Concluding 2025

It was New Year’s Eve. That evening on Hondius, the crew organised a barbecue. There was music. People danced in their warm jackets on an outside deck as the snow fell. Fur seals jumped out of the water to breathe as they swam to their destinations. The occasional penguin porpoised and the mountains surrounding us got increasingly blanketed in snow.

St. Andrews Bay, Gold Harbour and the Grytviken graveyard had been intense highlights of the trip for me as was the atmospheric New Year party. We had also covered key points of Shackleton’s journey and there was still more to go!

From the same trip

Before I boarded Hondius, I toured northern Argentina’s canyons and mountains.

Colours of Salta and Jujuy

Read more about Hondius and the experience of setting foot on the Antarctic Peninsula.

Christmas in Antarctica

I concluded the trip with a visit to the Falkland Islands – and saw a 44-year old iceberg at the end of its life en route.

The Falkland Islands and the death of an iceberg

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