Entry into the waters around South Georgia require a ship to visit Grytviken as a matter of course. It is no hardship, however, as the sheltered harbor of Cumberland Bay East is as spectacular as it is interesting.
Turning a corner under the slopes of Mount Duse (named incidentally after a member of the Swedish National Antarctic Expedition, 1901-3), a low series of white, red-roofed buildings comes into place. This, the research station at King Edward Point, isn’t a new addition to the site here. Some of the buildings, including the original gaol survive from the early part of the 20th Century when the nearby whaling station at Grytviken was founded (1904).
Gazing along the bay, more white buildings pop out of the morning mist, including a large museum, a Lutheran church, and rusted metal oil tanks that once held whale oil in variety. The whaling station here operated for some 60 years, and although the buildings themselves have been removed, their inner machinery still towers above the grassy walkways with their resident fur seals and king penguins. It is a site rich with wildlife. Where once men flensed the blubber from whales, now just a scatter of bones remain.
