In 1916 Shackleton and two of his expeditionary crew staggered into Stromness whaling station and thus commenced a rescue that would save all hands of his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Visit today, and the aura of this miraculous escape from the clutches of icy Antarctica still looms heavy under South Georgia’s leaden skies. But how much of South Georgia would Shackleton recognise today?

The island’s glaciers may be in retreat but the absence of whalers and sealers for more than sixty years has seen a spectacular recovery of wildlife. Travel writer and radio broadcaster, Mark Stratton, travelled to South Georgia last year to discover some of the ghosts of Shackleton and celebrate one of the greatest wildlife spectacles on earth.

Grytviken church

Grytviken whale oil tanks

King penguins

Skua