Start Point, a mere 30-metre high knoll by the sea, was a surprisingly difficult 'summit', being a seal-infested bump overlooking the penguin and seal masses of Salisbury Plain, on the remote island of South Georgia. This has to be one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. The sun was shining and sooty albatrosses were floating past. Paradise indeed. I was part of a group from the British Schools Exploring Society, surveying glaciers. On the knoll top was an old survey cairn from the 1960s, which we had come a long way to re-survey, trekking over mountains carrying lots of junk such as surveying tripods that were never designed for mountaineering.
Unfortunately, our knoll was also a high vantage point for a few dozen of some of the estimated three million (yes, 3000000) fur seals whose population has exploded since their near demise when hunted in the early 1900s. Fur seals are aggressive and keen to charge and bite anything blundering towards them. Running away was our preferred option. It took a lot of determination and strategy to edge slowly amongst them to claim our summit, worried that our retreat was being cut off. Our two-week stay on South Georgia was a mix of survey work with a good dose of mountaineering fun, until things got really exciting on our way home when, in true Shackleton fashion, our ship HMS Endurance (very appropriately) came close to sinking as sea water flooded the engine room and lower cabins. We had to bail for 18 hours to keep afloat until rescued by the Chilean navy. I lost most of my stuff, eventually arriving back at Heathrow in borrowed clothes with just a bin bag containing a few bits and pieces. A proper expedition indeed.
