King George Island
After our overnight trip from Paulet Island, we awoke at King George Island, anchored in Maxwell Bay. This is the site of 13 research bases including China, Chile and Russia which you'll see in the photos below. Chile had granted us permission to land and we were free to walk among the buildings of the bases. In times past, these were pretty grim and dirty places, the practice being to pile your garbage on the other side of the hill and try to forget it's there. Trouble with that strategy is that there is little opportunity for it to decay during the short summers and it leaches all kinds of nasty pollutants into the ground. All the bases have made a determined effort to clean themselves up and to ship out their garbage. The bases we walked among were clean and the land appeared essentially untouched by human hand ... ignoring of course the buildings comprising the working bases.
Our visit here was unscheduled. One of our fellow passengers became severely ill. We were never quite sure what the problem was but it became life threatening and he had to be airlifted back to receive hospital care. This particular base had a small gravel airstrip which allowed an Otter to fly in, pick him up, and return him to Chile.
These photos were taken in February 2006 with a Nikon D200.
Read MoreOur visit here was unscheduled. One of our fellow passengers became severely ill. We were never quite sure what the problem was but it became life threatening and he had to be airlifted back to receive hospital care. This particular base had a small gravel airstrip which allowed an Otter to fly in, pick him up, and return him to Chile.
These photos were taken in February 2006 with a Nikon D200.
