South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands · GS

St Andrew's Bay

On the exposed northern coast of South Georgia, a three-kilometre sweep of dark sand beach hosts the largest king penguin colony on Earth—over 150,000 birds filling the air with an unbroken chorus of calls, squabbles, and braying that carries far out to sea. Ringed by the Cook, Buxton, and Heaney Glaciers and overlooked by the 1,600-foot rock face of Mount Skittle, St Andrews Bay combines raw polar grandeur with one of the planet's most concentrated wildlife spectacles. Southern elephant seals and Antarctic fur seals share the beach, while giant petrels, skuas, and snowy sheathbills patrol the colony's edges. The bay is reached by expedition cruise via Zodiac landing, and its exposure to east-facing ocean swell and sudden katabatic winds descending from the glaciers means that setting foot on its shores is always an achievement worth savouring.