South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
Mountains, glaciers and vast penguin colonies
South Georgia is a mountainous, glaciated island in the Southern Ocean, reached only by expedition ship, often on voyages to Antarctica. Its beaches hold some of the largest wildlife gatherings on earth: hundreds of thousands of king penguins at Salisbury Plain and St Andrews Bay, alongside fur seals and elephant seals. At Grytviken, a former whaling station, rusting machinery surrounds a museum and a small church, and Ernest Shackleton is buried in the cemetery. Expedition ships land by Zodiac when the weather allows.