Photosphere along the Shackleton Hike in South Georgia

In August, Google eliminated Maps View to roll it (and Panoramio) into their Google Maps product. It was probably a reasonable business decision, and will likely result in more people viewing contributed images and photospheres — but it eliminated the easily-accessible stats about view counts, and alienated many dedicated contributors.

More puzzling was their decision to eliminate the descriptive text most contributors included with imagery. All of my images had captions — some as several paragraphs — to provide a context for the image. Captions for well-known places may have been considered redundant, but I would argue that they were (are) essential for remote locations.

Fortunately, I have backups of my contributed imagery — and they still include the captions. To ensure the information is not lost forever, I’ll post selected ones on this blog, with a link to where they can be seen in Google Maps.

Along the Shackleton Hike, South Georgia
[click to open as a photosphere in Google Maps]

I captured this photosphere in December 2013 while participating in a hike that followed the final leg of a route across South Georgia Island taken by explorer Sir Earnest Shackleton in 1916. Here is the caption I originally included with the contributed image.

Along the Shackleton Hike, South Georgia.

Passengers from the MV Fram take a half-way break on a 6km hike between Fortuna Bay and Stromness Harbour.

These conditions were pleasant compared to the bitter cold and snow faced by explorer Ernest Shackleton and 2 companions in 1916. After enduring 17 days and 1300 kms in a small boat, they had landed in a bay on the uninhabited western side of South Georgia This was the final leg in a grueling 42km hike to get help from whalers at Stromness Harbour.

This hike was one of many shore excursion options during Hurtigruten’s “Realm of the Great Explorers” 19-day expedition. Although it did involve some clambering over loose rock, and a descent through snow, the hike was not particularly challenging. Although I had brought hiking boots, I chose to use the neoprene boots from the MV Fram: they were warm and kept my feet dry — and with no blisters.