Diaries
Olly Watts' diary
Olly Watts
LATEST ENTRY
Monday 18 December
It's my last morning here, stumbling among tussac clumps worn smooth by fur seals, which the beaches are thick with. At seemingly every turn they lurk among the tussac slopes, with a growl, a yelp and stench.
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Friday 15 December
You cannot visit South Georgia without feeling something about Ernest Shackleton. A true British - well, Anglo-Irish, in fact - hero in that he snatched a kind of victory from the jaws of desperation and defeat.
Thursday 14 December
We're more exposed to harsher weather and there are fewer sheltered anchorages, so we're having to be more adaptable in our plans. We've made some good landings and covered a lot of ground but we've also missed out on some good spots for giant petrels because the sea has been too rough to get ashore.
Friday 8 December
Our paradise of the perfect morning is broken by the finding of rat droppings. Then a skull; I hear rodent scurrying among the high tussac. Brought to South Georgia by people, rats are a serious pest here: they eat the burrow-nesting birds. And already, they have cleared out the pipits. Our morning's idyll has found the beginnings of a nightmare.
Thursday 7 December
After a few days of moving back and forth along South Georgia’s north coast doing surveys, picking up supplies and meeting the British Schools Exploring Society, we had a long and rather bumpy night sail right round the west of the island and down along the south coast.
Wednesday 6 December
Smashed and battered by fierce weather and looting, the twisted, drunken-angled, often shattered remains are unsafe for visitors, with the dangers of falling sheet metal compounded by asbestos dust from decaying insulation.
Monday 4 December
As well as the giant petrel monitoring - for which we are now well down the northern coast of South Georgia - our expedition is also looking at white-chinned petrels, another species that appears to be suffering from the activities of fisheries.
Tuesday 28 November
Surveying of giant petrels is now in full stride. We’re working along the north coast of South Georgia, moving slowly eastwards from the western tip of the island.
Friday 24 November
Early morning the next day, after a rough night at sea, we make Willis Island, the first outlying island of South Georgia proper. The wheelhouse is crowded with excitement as Golden Fleece threads skilfully through the islands and on to Bird Island, our first landing.
Wednesday 22 November
It's our third day at sea and the South Atlantic has been pretty kind to us. The wind seemed to be picking up as we left Stanley and the Falklands, raising a certain insistent noise through the rigging, but to little avail thus far, thankfully.
Monday 13 November
I've never been across the Equator before, so this whole trip will be quite an adventure. There are so many things people are asking me that I can't answer yet. I've done a bit of sailing, but what will the Southern Ocean be like? How cold will it be? Can you live on a small boat for a month? Are you fit enough for all that hiking?
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