MUSEUM ASSISTANT KRIS ALLAN ON THE EVENTS OF JANUARY AT THE SOUTH GEORGIA MUSEUM

Greetings from a sunny South Georgia!Looking back to the start of January it’s hard to believe how many guests we welcomed through the Museum doors! We had a very busy, but enjoyable, start to the year which began with an invite on board a cruise ship to “bring in the bells”. The second week in January turned out to be our busiest week yet, seeing 11 ships in 8 days. It’s always great to be able to chat to the visitors who are just as enthusiastic about South Georgia as we are. We are continuing to receive great support for the Habitat Restoration Project from the guests that come to Grytviken to visit us. The main way they find out about the on-going project is through the Habitat Restoration talk given on-board the ship either at the start of their visit or after they have been on shore. The project really is brought to life through Sarah’s enthusiastic and very knowledgeable presentations. Its’ always great to hear the positive feedback about the presentation, and the visitors love being able to contribute towards the preservation of such a fantastic island. This week we said goodbye to Anthony (our Artist In Residence). Although we were sad to see him leave, we knew he was in for an amazing journey down to the Antarctic Peninsula (very jealous!) in aboard the wonderful Le Boreal . Anthony’s beautiful albatross sculpture, which had been for sale in the shop was also purchased on this day which was a fantastic end to his term here as Artist In Residence; a large percentage of the purchase price went to support the Habitat Restoration Project.

Curatorial Intern Suzanne Paterson, Industrial Archaeologist Bjorn Basberg and Scott Smith dressed ready to access or remote areas of the whaling station.

We also said goodbye to Scott, a PhD student who had been staying with us for a couple of months. Scott was photographing the whaling stations (Grytviken, Stromness, Husvik and Leith) in order to create 3D animations of the buildings and surrounding landscapes. I very much look forward to seeing the finished article when Scott completes his project. One of Scott’s tutors (and also SGHT Trustee) Bjorn Basberg was also here for a couple of weeks to work with Scott.

We’ve had some fantastic adventures so far out in the wilds of South Georgia and I’ve included a couple of my snaps of the wildlife and the hut at Harpon Bay.February is going to bring a lot less cruise ships than January so we are looking forward to getting stuck into the on-going maintenance and deep cleaning around the Museum. Thanks for checking out the blog.

All the best, Kris.