Saunders 6 Elephant Point

On the Sunday morning I was awake before the boys so enjoyed an early morning walk along the beach to the rockhopper cliffs and back. I was able to watch 4 different kinds of penguins. There is a small group of king penguins at The Neck and several of these were on the beach as well as large numbers of gentoos and magellanics and of course the rockhoppers were still having fun in the rock pools.

After breakfast we decided to walk to Elephant Point which is the far north-westerly tip of the island, about 5 miles from our campsite as the goose flies but we followed the coastline around. We were hoping to find some elephant seals for John to see. On our way we passed a large breeding colony of kelp gulls. There were hundreds wheeling around noisily and it was only after a while that I realised that there were lots of chicks running around on the ground, extremely camaflauged amongst the pebbles.
Some Falkland Skuas must also have had their nests in the area as we found ourselves being dive-bombed by some. They are quite frightening as they hurtle down towards you with powerful beaks and I was glad to have my stick to wave above my head.
John spotted our first seal on a small beach. They are difficult to see amongst the kelp and rocks despite their large size. Some were hauled out on the grass and many of them were moulting. By the time we rounded the end of the island we had seen about 50 so our efforts were well rewarded.

We decided to return along the top of the ridge of hills so headed upwards and eventually reached the summit of Mount Harston at 1421 feet above sea level. It was very windy and John and I were grateful to shelter behind the large cairn, or standing man as they are known here, to eat a snack before we started heading down across the hillside to our camp.
After a welcome cup of tea we all headed back along the beach once more to watch the rockhoppers.