Grytviken..............

23rd July 1982

We came alongside the jetty at Grytviken yesterday and spent the day shifting stores - that's what we do! Of course, Grytviken and Leith is where this conflict kicked off. It was on the 26th April that South Georgia was retaken with the help of the Plymouth and Antrim - the Argentinians didn't like their fire power at all.

The day before the Argentinian submarine - Sante Fe was bombed by the Brilliant's 2 Lynx helicopter - it then limped into Grytviken bay and there it still lies. As you enter the bay you can see the turrets breaking above the water line.

South Georgia is an amazing place. Beautiful and unspoilt. It is a place of striking contrast. One moment you can be in bright sunshine gazing at the snow covered mountains and then the next you can find yourself in a blizzard. A truly spectacular place.

Grytviken, itself, is an old whaling station abandoned many years ago. This is truly an eerie place. As you walk up the old slipway, used for dragging whales out of the sea before processing, you are struck by the quiet of the place - a bit like a ghost town, I'd guess.

As you walk through the station you realise things are 'preserved' by the climate conditions here. It's almost as though the whalers were here just yesterday - old equipment looks like it would still work. There a large containers full of bits and pieces of equipment still in relatively good shape. You come across gloves just left behind, still in good condition. This is a really spooky place, almost like stepping back in time.

I will revisit this place in 1984 with the Yarmouth. Until then, I will leave you with this image. A little ways behind the whaling station is an old football pitch. As I looked across this expanse a small herd of reindeer, yes - reindeer, hove into view. They ran across the pitch in front of me and disappeared into the hills. A quite amazing site - I cursed myself that I was not armed with a camera!

South Georgia is blessed with some amazing wildlife - more of that when we come back to South Georgia with the Yarmouth.