SOUTH GEORGIA And SIMILAR ISLANDS - This Sizeable, Cold, Bleak, Windswept, Isolated, Mountainous and Glacier Clad, South Atlantic Island, -is the Centerpiece of a Horseshoe Shaped Island String. This Stretches from South America's Southern Tip at Tierra Del Fuego, Clear Across to the Mid-Atlantic, Before Doubling Back to Antarctica's Palmer Peninsula, by way of the South Sandwich and South Orkney Islands. The South Shetland Islands Wrap this up, Closest to Antarctica's Palmer. The Falklands or Malvinas begin this Island Chain, Much Closer to South America and Argentina. It shall be Discussed after This One, in a Post of it's Own.

Due to the Horseshoe type Curving Back of this Chain, -Each End, -The Falklands and South Shetlands, -are Actually Closer to Each Other, than either is to South Georgia, the Chain's Central Anchor Point. Let Alone the South Sandwich ones, the Most Distant of All from Any in the Chain.

Well Further Across much of the Southern Atlantic, is Norway's Bouvet Island. It is Too Far East, however, to be considered a Part of this Same Geological Formation and Chain. It has the Same Utterly Rotten Sea Conditions and Weather!, and is probably just as Ruff, Rugged, and Rocky! It will be Discussed Later, under ISOLATED WORLD ISLANDS.

It's East Enuf to be Quite Close to the Greenwich Meridian. Whereas the Easternmost South Sandwiches, are a Good Thousand Miles further West than Bouvet. Still, the South Sandwiches *are* Quite Near the Mid-Atlantic. South Georgia and Other Scotia Islands may Not be in the Mid-Atlantic, but They're Still a Good Quarter of the Way Across, nevertheless.

These Islands are all within about 52 -63 Degrees South Latitude. The Roaring 40's and the Angry South Atlantic! The Antarctic Circumpolar Ocean! This is Pretty Far South and Cold! Just Picture once again 52 - 63 Degrees North, To Get the Spirit, Flavor, and Idea! The Weather and Climate here is as Bad as I said for Cape Horn, or Worse! (See Patagonia and Tierra Del Fuego.)

These also Qualify to be Covered under "Earth's Wildest Places, / The Survival Aspects.-ISOLATED WORLD ISLANDS". But also Being COLD Such as they are, They will be Covered here. Some Other Isolated World Islands are Down At or Near these Latitudes, be it North Polar or South Polar. But All of these, with the Exception of Norway's Far North Atlantic Volcanic Island of Jan Mayen, (and Ones such as the Arctic Siberian Islands already Discussed.), will All be Addressed under EWP, Svl. Aspects, ISOLATED WORLD ISLANDS. That will Come sometime Later.

All of these Islands in the South Georgia String, also Called the Scotia Islands and Sea, -All are Typically Small, Windy, Cold, Rainy, Foggy, Rocky, Sea Swept by some Pretty Ruff Ones!, and Isolated. Some can be Pretty Big for "Small" Islands, though! Looking at my Globe, the Falklands are perhaps 100 Miles Across, South Georgia is maybe 70, and Coronation island is maybe 20 or 30.

They have been Formed by Long Ago Volcanism, though they are Not Neccessarily Volcanic now.

We'll from this point on Discuss primarily South Georgia, the Chain's Frigid, Forbidding, Jewel and Centerpiece!

Virtually Anything Discussed as Characterizing South Georgia, is Equally Applicable to All Else Down Here! (Except some of the Other Islands may Not have Glaciers.) So we'll let South Georgia do a sort of Double Duty here. Beyond whats already been said relating to them, We would have to Skip over these Less Important, More Minor Islands, anyway.

So How is South Georgia?

It is a Longish, Slightly Curving, (With the "Grain of the Chain"), Ovalish yet somewhat Rectangular, Ruggedly Mountained, Bare, Snow Capped and Glaciered, Windswept and Sea Lashed, Bleak, Ruff, Rugged, and Rocky!, 70 or so Mile Long Island! In the Deep, Cold, Southern Ocean! It might be Lucky to be 20 or 30 Miles Thick. at it's Thickest!

What Columbus said of Dominica's Mountainousness to his King and Queen, -Can be said just as Much!, of South Georgia! Columbus Didn't have to say a Word to Make his Point, -All he Had to do, was Crumple up a Piece of Paper Before his King, which he Did. That is as Much the Story of South Georgia's Mountainousness!, as it is of Dominica's!

Hardly Anyone Lives there! This is of course Due to it's Atrocious Conditions and it's Smallness. But even if that were Not so!, It's Isolation, Obscurity, and Remoteness, would be Enuf to Make it, Virtually Uninhabited So!

It's Cold as it is! Plus this High Altitude, Ruff and Rocky Place, Does get a Winter!

This is the Famous Life-Saving, Make It or Break It!, -Destination of Shackleton! As he and some Select Men set out on Not the Best of Boats in Any Sea Conditions, Let Alone These!, of the South Atlantic Drake Passage! Toward South Georgia! They so Set Out for South Georgia, Without the Best of Navigation Equipment or Observing Conditions! It Came Down to Knowledge, Determination, Discipline-Both Self and Group, Tenacious Endurance, and Sea Sense and Real Top Notch Seamanship! And They Finally Made It! Thru Ruff Seas and Weather, Utter Hardships and All, -They Finally Made It!

But to the Wrong Side or Coast!, of South Georgia! -It's Southern Underside. But this could Not be Helped, in that They were *Coming* from it's Southern Underside! They Knew that Very Well.

As if their Hardships that they've Already been Thru were'nt Enuff!, They now Knew they had Miles of Icy, Rough, Over-Mountain and Overland Travel Ahead of Them!, Before they could Come Out at What Made For Humanity and Civilization Down here! This was the Tiny Whaling Station at Gritivkyn, on the North Side of the Island. They Used only the Barest and Sketchiest of Maps, if even That! An "Educated Gauging of It", as They had Done earlier, Out on the Sea!

But They Made It so!, into Lonely Gritivkyn! Word was Finally Relayed, of the Entire Group's Status and Plight. A Far More Standard Rescue was Soon Enuff Made, to a Large Part of his Men, Still Left Behind, as in the Circumstances They had to be, on Elephant Island. This Island is Far Closer to the Antarctic, one of the South Shetlands. A Part of this Entire South Georgia / Scotia Island String.

As an Isolated World Island, and Great Outdoors Wilderness Location, I Like, Love, Respect, and Regard South Georgia so!

As a Hiking and Survival Locale, I Respect It so! More than Anything Else. It's a Real Bear!, as Shackleton's Crew only All Too Well Knew and Experienced!

It's Coldness, It's Roughness, It's Atrocious Winds and Weather, It's Exposure, It's Rain, It's Mountains and Glaciers, It's Lack of Trees, It's Lonely Isolation, It's Many Ever Present Perils and Dangers!

This is South Georgia!

This is Survival in South Georgia!

But it's a Very Crisp, Clean, Great Outdoors Location All the Same! It Truly Takes it's Place!, in the Ranking of the World's Great Wild Places!

Be That as it May!, or rather Is. If Down Here, -You are Going to Have To somehow Survive! Survive and Make It Out! -In These Quite Non-Survival Conducive of Conditions! There may be a Little More of Man's Prescence there than in Shackleton's Day, -but Not Much! It's Still so Very Much the Same Old South Georgia Survival Challenge!, as Ever! It's just a Fact, that if Down There, -You *Will* Have to Face the Same sort of Survival Challenges and Conditions, as Shackleton and his Crew Faced! South Georgia makes No Differientiating Distinction, between either You or They! It may be Quite Ruff and Hostile, but it's Nothing Personal. It's just Nature and the Outdoors being Nature and the Outdoors! It Feels that we are on It's Turf, and at It's Pleasure!, -Not Vice Versa! Its so Thruout the Entire World of the Great Outdoors!, and South Georgia is No Exception!

So How's Specific Survival Down Here?!

What Will you Face? How Will you Hold Tight and Over? What Will you Do?, and Just as Importantly, Not Do? How Do you Plan on Getting Out? Of Reaching your Own sort of a Gritivkyn. (Which just as "Easily" could be Gritivkyn Itself.)

South Georgia would Involve, Cold Survival,Mountaineering and Mountain Survival, Sea and Coast Survival, Glacier Survival and Savvy, and to some Substantial Extent, a Kind of "Grasslands Survival".

It would Not Usually, if Ever, Involve Forest or Woodland Survival! South Georgia is Another Cold Area of the World, Where you Cannot Readily Avail Yourself of This! But there *May* be *Some* Trees and Forest in *Some* Areas, -I'm Not Sure on That! Count on Grasses and Such, and Rocks and their Like, for your Fire-Fuel and Shelter Needs! What Plants there are, are your Non-Woody ones. You're Not going to Find even these Grasses and the Like, in so Much of South Georgia's Bare, Snow and Ice Covered, Mountains!

Tussock Grasses and Such. They are Highly Nutritious!, at least for Animals. And All Grasses Do happen to be Edible. And there are an Awful Lot of Grasses on this Planet! I Don't know for Sure whether Tussock Grass is an Actual Grass.

(All Birds too are Edible, at least until I heard about the Discovery of a Very Poisonous One in New Guinea, over the Past 15 years or so! I Believe this Bird is Partly Orange, and may also have some Black. I am Not Entirely Sure about these Colors, though.)

You're Obviously gonna Have to Do a Lot of Cold Protection and Preparation!

Altitude can Become somewhat of a Factor, though Not Everests, the Mountains Do get Pretty Darned High!, -Nevertheless!

Glaciers Abound!, Complete with their Crevices and Other Pitfall Dangers.

Avalanches too, should certainly be Possible.

You'd Want Wind and Rain Protection! Especially the Cold Rain Protection! ,-No Diminishment whatever to the Imperatives of Wind Protection as well! As in Any Cold and Wet Climate, -You're gonna Want to Keep Warm and *Dry*!

Fresh Water shud be at least reasonably Accessable! Even if you have to Melt Snow and Ice, to Get at it!

South Georgia may have some Streams. One would Think that such a Wet, Mountainous, Snow and Ice Clad, Sizeable Island as This, Ought to! But the Island may Not have what one might consider Major Rivers. Even if it Does Possess some, They would have to be Short, on such a Smallish Island.

The Island is Small compared to more Usual Land Areas. But Large!, for one of the World's Typically Small, Isolated World Islands! If One Wants to Consider a Vermont or New Hampshire Sized Island (Perhaps), to be Small, then So Be it. But it so Much Comes Down to What you're Comparing it To! New Hampshire and Vermont *are* Two of our Smallest States. But That's an Awful Lot of Ground to be Tramping Around in! If Anyone Owned that Much Property, They'd be a Land Baron or Something! So South Georgia is at Once either Small or Large, Depending on How you're Looking at It! If you've Got to Survive Here!, and also Hike your Way Out!, -You're gonna be Viewing It as Rather Large!

Food may be Very Iffy to Non-Existant!, in the Interior.

But it can be Quite Abundant and Rich!, -Along the Coast! All the More Imperative Reason, to Strike and Head For, that Coast! Others of course would be to Gain a Gritivkyn type Rescue, and to Get the Heck Out of the Glaciers and Mountains! You may well Find Rich Sea, Bird, and Shore Life!, Along the Coasts! Seals and Whales shud be a Part of Such. Though you're Not likely to have Ready Access to Whales. But Seals Do Come up onto Rocky Beaches! Where They can be Available as a Good, On Hand, Food Source. Head for the Coasts for This and All Other Reasons to Go There! Avail Youself of This Greater Coastal Bounty!

You might Not have all that Far to Go to Get to a Coast, -But you Do Have an Awful Lot of Mountain and Glacier Hurdles to First Get Across!, in Order to Do so! So if it could be Rated on an Index, -This might be the Equivalent of at least Hundreds or More Miles, of a Ruff, Flat Surface, Wintertime, Canadian Hike!

As Atrociously Bad as the North Coast Sea and Weather Conditions typically Are!, This Northern Coast is probably the Better of the Two! The Southern One, in the Direct Face of Antarctic Blasts, is Most Probably Worse! Try for a Coast!, -But Try for the North Coast, as Oppossed to the South Coast. Some Coastal Areas may be More Advantageous than Others, as Far as Food Sources Go. Here I Do Not Know of specifically Which. The North is Still the All Round Far Better One to Strike Towards! Here you also Face the Civilized and Developed World to the North, whereas on the South Coast, You Only Face Bleak and Empty Antarctica! There is an East and West Coast too, but these are Minor "Ends" of the Island.

Pick and Work your Way Out of those Glaciers, Cliffs, and Mountains! Surviving as you Do! Work your Way to a South Georgian Coast!, again preferably it's Northern.

Occassional Shipping Does come in to Gritivkyn. There may even be Occassional Air Traffic, if there's an Airport. On such a Large and Important Island as This, There probably is an Airfield. Passing or Visiting Ships and Aircraft, -Signal for Them!, andor Wait for Them!

There may also be a Science or Nature Station or Two on the Island. Or a British Defense Installation or Two. Stike and Head for Them!

And as a Last but Not Least!, Things like Good Maps, Compass, and GPS and the Like, would Sure come in Very Important and Handy!

This is South Georgia with it's Fellow South Sandwich and Scotia Islands! And These are some of your Topmost South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands Survival Characteristics and Imperatives! You're in for a Ruff, Exposed, Wet, Windy, Cold, Highly Deprived, Mountaineering Stay!, -Shud you ever for any Reason Find Yourself Having to Survive Down There! South Georgia may Not be among the Very Coldest of the World's Coldest Wild Places, but it's Very Ruff and Cold Enuf! South Georgia is Nothing to Pooh Pooh over or Sneeze At! Just Ask Shackleton or Any of His Crew!

Tried again on the Length Front and Didn't Pull Thru on this one. Regrets and Apology. Will Cotinue to so Try. I Did Do it Before, and I Think I Can and Will Do It Again. [color:"black"] [/color] [email]ScottRezaLogan[/email]