Arguably the most elegant penguins of all, King Penguins, are found in incredible numbers in South Georgia.
Oddly enough, you don’t really see them on the continent of Antarctica, so most people who take a “quick” or “classic” expedition ship trip to Antarctica won’t see these penguins.
When I did a Falkland Islands, South Georgia and Antarctica trip with Polar Latitudes it was South Georgia that excited me most. I knew what to expect, and I wasn’t disappointed.
From close-up encounters with these colourful penguins, to seeing their colony at Salisbury Plain, numbering more than 100,000 breeding pairs!
The first good sightings I had of King Penguins was actually on the Falkland Islands. It provided a fun contrast to what was to come on South Georgia
At Saunders Island in the Falklands, it was sandy beach and green field landscapes instead of snow and ice. This gave things an extra pop of colour which was pretty cool, even the non-penguin birds and animals.
As exciting as those first encounters were, it was the noise, smell and sheer scale of things on South Georgia that created one of those travel experiences that words can not adequately capture.
Penguins, penguins, penguins…as far as the eye can see. One of the top wildlife experiences for me anywhere in the world. Perhaps even the top wildlife experience I’ve had anywhere.
On my first trip to Antarctica I was able to get some photos of Chinstrap Penguins, Gentoo Penguins and Adelie Penguins. But that was years ago, in the days of film cameras, so it was more about the memories than the photos for me on that trip.
I’ve since gotten into photography more, and this time around I wasn’t as conservative with my photography. I must have taken well over 10,000 photos on this epic trip, managing to snap a few keepers along the way.
