South Georgia
The approach takes us past Bird Island, one of the greatest concentrations of nesting wandering albatrosses on earth. Wildlife meets you before the first landing.
King Haakon Bay is where Shackleton's party made landfall after the open-boat crossing from Elephant Island. The bay is remote, rarely visited, and the scale of what happened there settles slowly.
Grytviken is a formal customs stop, and rather more besides. The museum, the abandoned whaling station, and in the cemetery: Shackleton and Wild under simple headstones. We take time here.
The remaining days move between St Andrews Bay, Salisbury Plain, Gold Harbour, Cooper Bay, Fortuna Bay and Drygalski Fjord. At Fortuna Bay, the hike toward Stromness follows the final section of the mountain crossing, the ground Shackleton, Worsley, and Crean walked on in 1916 to raise the alarm.
Early morning landings in golden light. King penguin colonies in full courtship. Elephant seal bulls compete on the beaches before fur seal numbers peak later in the season.
Possible locations: Bird Island, Elsehul Bay, King Haakon Bay, St Andrews Bay, Fortuna Bay, Stromness, Salisbury Plain, Cooper Bay, Gold Harbour, Drygalski Fjord, Grytviken, Nordenskjold Glacier, Ocean Harbour.