Early morning visit to Salisbury Plain on the Bay of Islands. I decided not to do the sunrise zodiac landing and slept in to 7.15 – the 9am call for my group 3 was early enough for me! The plain and tussock slope behind the Lucas glacier is home to one of the largest penguin rookeries in South Georgia with about 80,000 pairs.
We watched King penguins walk from the colony on the hillside, down through muddy guano (stumbling, falling and getting stuck in the muck – even to the point of ending beak down), and then heading off to the beach to get clean again. It was quite a sight. 
You would think they would experience that once and would then signal to others to avoid that stretch of land, but no…..waves of different penguin groupings wandered down and repeated the experience…..
On our return to the zodiac, we suddenly saw a huge elephant seal heaving its way up the shore, landing on a moss covered landing with other seals and penguin. No other species were squished in this journey! 
In the afternoon we visited Prion Island to see the magnificent Wandering Albatross nests. There are also some small seabirds, Prions, there. But our major goal was the albatross (4 metre wing span!). And we saw some Giant Petrels as well, and a little Petrel chick. 
Fortuna Bay, Stromness – it is here that Shackleton arrived after a 36 hour walk from King Haakon Bay on the other side of the island! (after gruelling months on ice floes trying to find land)…to reach help and save his men on Elephant Island. The beach and plains are rich with wildlife – penguins and seals. We do a walk to a waterfall in the distance, not very speccy but good to stretch the legs.
We visit the museum which is a tribute to Antarctic explorers, (mainly Shackleton) and has memorabilia from when the place was a whaling station. The Lutheran church building on the island has had a few uses, cinema, post office, now a church. We toast Shackleton at his gravesite. 
Dynamic little Macaroni penguins have a colony at Hercules Bay on a tussock-covered slope above a rocky shoreline. Zodiac cruising this morning to see their activity. The name “Macaroni’ derives from the 18C englishmen dandies who made the grand tour of Italy and dyed their hair in streaks, with extended crests over their ears. On exploring Antartica, British sailors meeting the penguins christened them after this style.
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