We’ve had two wonderful days at Elsehul bay after a (deep breath) “challenging” four day crossing from Stanley. A magical bay with cliffs, black sand, tussac, snow capped peaks and of course a welcoming party on the beach of young fur seals and king penguins.
We’ve already done some great archaeology! I’m one of the citizen scientists on board the Hans Hanssen. Its been amazing to see a beach transformed into a gridded and (very slightly) excavated site. The project is made all the more interesting by the need to keep an eye on the wildlife – you don’t want to get bitten by a small fur seal with razor sharp teeth while carefully measuring and drawing the position of an artefact!
On the beach and in the tussac we’ve heard and seen several South Georgia pipits – huge thanks to the rat eradication project.
The crowning glory of this beach – from the sealing history point of view – is a trio of trypots which we have started to examine.
The king penguins have been very interested in the grid marker tapes on the ground, and a skua nearly got away with a camera case. Its been lovely to see light mantled and grey headed albatross overhead. The former have a small nesting colony which we saw yesterday. Large bundles of grey down flapping their unformed wings. The northern giant petrels have been busy finishing off a seal carcass.
South Georgia just keeps doing what South Georgia does all around us while we try to give close attention to the archaeologists. It feels slightly surreal at times but our mixed group is working well. Lots of laughter and enthusiasm. Brilliant.
– Vanessa
(note if you comment on the blog itself, we are able to see the comments onboard)
