Martin follows in the footsteps of heroes to the end of the world
By Brian Flett
(Story dated March 6, 2003)

Wildlife guide, Martin Gray from North Ronaldsay, is getting back to normal after a six-week tour to the opposite end of the globe - Antarctica.

The former whaling station of Stromness in South Georgia

He realised several ambitions during his trip, as he saw the grave of explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, visited the former whaling station of Stromness in South Georgia, named after its Orcadian counterpart, as well as setting foot on South Orkney and sitting among a nesting colony of albatrosses with wingspans of 11 feet.

Martin got the opportunity to go to the South Atlantic as a result of his previous experience as a tour guide on a number of wildlife trips through the islands of the North Atlantic to the Arctic.

He led three tours from South America across the southern ocean to Antarctica itself, visiting several of the island groups along the way and describing the variety of wildlife that they encountered en route.

South Shetland islands

There were two 11-day trips and a longer 18-day tour aboard the Russian cruise ship Grigoriy Mikheev. Martin explained that although it was not an icebreaker ship, its hull had been specially strengthened to be able to negotiate ice floes.

The Russian cruise ship Grigoriy Mikheev at anchor in Paradise Bay on the Antarctic peninsula. This was the ship aboard which Martin Gray from North Ronaldsay led three wildlife trips from South America to Antarctica.

The 11-day voyages started off from Ushuaia, the southernmost port of Argentina, through the Beagle Channel and out into the Drake Passage, which separates South America from Antarctica.

There is a two-day crossing from Argentina towards the South Shetland Islands. Martin said that this period, across a fairly notorious stretch of sea, was taken up by delivering lectures about the seabirds they saw, such as albatrosses and shearwaters.

“I did quite a lot of that - either out on deck or from the bridge of the ship, explaining why the birds are there, what they eat, where they breed and so on. Apart from lectures and sightseeing from the ship, their main interest is to go ashore at the various islands.

“South Shetland, is not at all like our northern neighbours. It is quite mountainous, full of glaciers and ice-capped peaks. It has big penguin colonies. They are mostly chinstrap and gentoo penguins. It was great fun to see them.

“The noise was deafening and the smell overpowering, but to see so many birds together like that was quite impressive. The different species of penguin live in quite distinct colonies, but they’re all on the same island.

Massive elephant seals

“There were also elephant seals. They are massive beasts - weighing up to four tonnes. Then, we sailed on to Deception Island, where there is a former Norwegian whaling station. The island is an active volcano with mountains surrounding a submerged crater. It is very sheltered once you’re inside the crater and there are hot springs right at the water’s edge which you bathe in, which is quite unusual.

A close-up picture of an elephant seal, which can weigh anything up to four tonnes.

“Then we travelled on to the Antarctic peninsula itself. It is another day’s sailing away. When we got there, there was lots more wildlife. There was a different type of penguin there -Adelie - which are smaller and jet black but with a white rim around their eye. There was very little free land. There were lots of glaciers, so the landing sites are limited. Very few of the inlets are ice free. It is also very stony. But it was very special to land on Antarctica – the seventh continent. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking. I wasn’t prepared for just how incredible it was - huge mountains, snowfields and glaciers. It was staggeringly beautiful.

“Then it was time to head back across the southern ocean, looking for seabirds, whales and dolphins. We were lucky each time. We saw humpback, fin, minke and sei whales. I think the whales were probably top of the visitors’ list of things to see because they are so much in the public eye.

Sailing past Cape Horn

“Then we sailed past Cape Horn for about a mile. There was quite a good sea running on every trip. But it was not as real as in a sailing boat. There was very impressive cliff scenery to such a notorious landmark. But it was a different country - Chile - so we couldn’t go ashore even if we could have found a place to land. Then it was back to Ushuaia. Our complement of 46 passengers left the ship at 9am and the next group came aboard at 4pm the same day. So there wasn’t much of a break in between trips.”

Martin went on to explain; “On the second, 11-day trip, we basically followed the same route, but the passengers were all avid stamp collectors - members of the Polar Philatelic Club - and their main aim was to visit as many as possible of the Antarctic bases in and around the continent. They each have their own stamps which are quite collectable and valuable, apparently. There are 11 bases, and we visited ten of them. These collectors got their stamps from each of the places and they were absolutely thrilled. They weren’t all that interested in the wildlife. I used to think that birdwatchers were obsessive, until I met these people. They were completely absorbed in their hobby.”

The third and final group he escorted was on an 18-day tour whose first landfall after leaving South America was the Falkland Islands.

Martin said: “We had a day in Port Stanley and we were there at the same time as a huge liner with 2,500 passengers. We were absolutely dwarfed by this ship. Their tender which ferried passengers to and from the ship was almost the same size as our boat.

“The interesting thing about the Falklands is that it offered our visitors more diversity of wildlife and birds, land birds such as ducks and geese, which you don’t see in the Antarctic. The scenery is slightly more like Shetland than Orkney, with heath and peaty land.

“Stanley is quite weird - having an outpost and a town, so far from the rest of the country. It is a peedie bit of Britain in the South Atlantic. They use the same currency and even the same coins as at home. There is an excellent museum in Port Stanley which our visitors enjoyed. They also had a chance to get their souvenirs.

Falklands War

“I got the impression that the Falklands War was never far from their minds. There are memorials everywhere and the constant activity of military aircraft and the large number of British service personnel there is a constant reminder of it. But the military is a big employer for the islands.

Sunshine reflected by the sea lights up a spectacular ice arch in the Antarctic.

“I was speaking to a Customs official who was on board with us for a while and he said that there was now a very low fear level among islanders of an invasion ever happening again - mainly because of the domestic situation in Argentina. They have no money to wage a war.

“After the Falklands, we set off to South Georgia which was three days sailing. During the sea crossing, we saw dolphins and whales and albatrosses, including one bird which followed us for days, thinking that we must be a trawler and that it might pick up some discarded fish.

“When we reached South Georgia it was phenomenal, and was for me really the jewel in the crown of the places we saw. There were huge colonies of petrels and shearwaters. I’m told there are 50 million seabirds there. There is an incredible density of birds. The volume of things to look at was truly amazing.

Three million population

“There are also fur seals on every bit of coast. They were nearly killed out by hunting, associated with the whalers, until, by the 1920s, they were nearly extinct. But now the population has built up to around three million, so there are huge colonies of fur seals everywhere. They had pups when we were there, so the noise was constant and the animals were not to be meddled with either.

“Male fur seals with a harem of females could be quite aggressive. Tour guides only go ashore armed with sticks or paddles to chase them off. I was told by one guide that if you survive the lacerations you suffer from a bite by a fur seal, the bacteria in their saliva will get you.

Martin Gray laying a wreath on behalf of the cruise ship and her passengers, on the grave of polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton at Grytviken in South Georgia.

“We spent four days in South Georgia. It was kind of rough weather when we were there, but on a very bonny day with a clear blue sky and sun, although with 50 mile-an-hour winds, we went to the settlement of Grytviken.

“It was one of the highlights for many. It is where the polar explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton, is buried. We had to go and visit his grave and follow a tradition started in 1922 by his shipmates. We drank a wee dram to his memory and poured another on his grave. We also laid a small wreath on behalf of the cruise ship.

“Another good high point for me was getting to Stromness, the former whaling station in South Georgia, which is in bad shape and dangerous to walk around.

“ It was from here that Shackleton made contact with the outside world after 18 months when people thought his party had perished. They had crossed the Weddell Sea in an open boat the James Caird to reach Elephant Island where he left some of the crew and sailed on to South Georgia.

“Shackleton had landed at King Haakon Bay and had climbed huge rugged mountains with jagged peaks and eventually came down a waterfall to reach Stromness. We went into the manager’s house in the former whaling station where he stayed until he could arrange a ship to go back to Elephant Island to pick up the rest of his crew.

Visit to South Orkney

“You cannot fail to be moved by Shackleton’s achievement. It is just beyond belief.”

A colony of king penguins on South Georgia. Martin Gray described the noise of the birds as "deafening" and the smell "overpowering."

Martin Gray described the final stages of the 18-day trip: “After South Georgia it was two days sailing to South Orkney. It is not a very hospitable place. There is a lot of pack ice. It is very rocky and high with ice and snow everywhere. But it is convenient to break the long sea journey back to South America.

“We were going round the island in zodiacs with outboard motors. I couldn’t resist it. I had to get ashore, so we found a tiny bit of land where I was able to climb up and say that I set foot on South Orkney. We spent about half a day exploring around the islands. The we headed back across Drake Passage.

“On the other five journeys, to and fro, there were flat calm conditions. But on this last trip, we encountered really ferocious seas, with a 10-12 metre swell from the west. It was a dramatic last memory for the 46 passengers on that journey.

“I flew back via Buenos Aires and Paris and travelled back up through the UK to Orkney.”

Martin added: “One other lasting memory for me was visiting a breeding colony of wandering albatrosses. They are very big birds with a wingspan of 11 feet.

“There are quite strict regulations about how close you can go to birds without disturbing them. But in this case, if you sat down, they virtually came over to you. So that was another ambition of mine to sit in a nesting colony of albatrosses.”