Travel feature highlights unique 'add-on' islands

It’s late November, the middle of breeding season, and thousands of penguins and seals line up along the beach – one of the longest in these islands at five kilometres. So dense is the coverage, I can’t see any of the beach at all.

When I finally lift my gaze from the beach, I see the foothills that lead to the towering, gnarled ice and black rock mountains beyond, which are also crammed with penguins that make up one of the world’s largest king penguin colonies with a population over 120,000.

As we step onshore from the tender, a fur seal pup mock charges our boat. It’s a defensive tactic, apparently it will only advance further if you run, since fast movement triggers its fight-or-flight response.

King penguins, the second-largest penguin behind the emperor, waddle toward me and stare up. When I walk across the snow in my heavy boots, they shuffle beside and behind me, as a kind of escort. When I pause to take a photo, I swear two of them stop and pose. Fur seals may bark and grunt to show who’s boss, but king penguins are the most gracious of hosts.

Among the white-and-orange and yellow-coloured king penguins, I see thousands of penguins wearing brown fluffy fur coats. Early researchers called these penguins fluffy penguins. It didn’t take them long to realise that, even though many of them are heavier than their parents, these are king penguin chicks.

I’m barely ashore in South Georgia, and already I’m having one of my most unusual wildlife moments. I don’t feel like I’m looking at animals, but rather existing among them. And I get the distinct impression they are doing just as much ogling.