On South Georgia's beaches, king penguin colonies run to hundreds of thousands of birds — an ocean of orange-flashed heads, trumpeting, utterly unafraid, with fur seals and albatrosses as supporting cast. Getting there means an expedition cruise from Ushuaia, usually bundled with the Falklands, where Volunteer Point offers a smaller, cheaper colony reachable by 4x4 day trip. Book cabins a year or more out for the November-to-March season. No wildlife spectacle on earth is louder, smellier or better.
Featured in Ten wildlife encounters that will humble you · Adventure