After a single night at a hostal in Santiago we flew to Stanley, the main settlement on the Falkland Islands off the bottom of the South American coast. Our flight consisted of 3 legs - we landed at both Puerto Montt and Punta Arenas for passenger exchange. At Punta Arenas we had to leave the plane for passport control out of Chile. Alcohol and food were served on each flight though, so it didn’t bother us too much.
6 hours later we landed at Mount Pleasant airport, Stanley where we met up with Patrick Watts, a friend we had made during our last visit here 3 years ago. We have come at a busy time. This year is the 25th anniversary of the Falklands war, or the ´conflict´ as they call it here. Patrick was the Stanley radio broadcaster at the time, transmitting to the settlement during the Argentine occupation (with a gun to his head for some of it, apparently). There have been many journalists here throughout this season and Patrick has been kept busy touring them around. On out flight there were journalists from the New York Times and also Al Jazeera. Indeed, it (and him) seem to have been getting good media coverage in the UK.
The Kings patrol the beach
We had no plans regarding what to do when we arrived at Kays B&B in Stanley. She made us feel at home while we were putting our tent up in the garden (in amongst her legendary gnomes, which are now part of the Stanley tour bus circuit - possibly the most snapped gnomes in the world) with tea and cakes. Stanley is a great place. The Islands have a population of only around 2900, with two thirds of that living in Stanley (that is if you don’t count the 1500 or so military stationed here). Everybody seems to know everybody else (as well as all their business - I doubt secrets are possible here...)  |  |
We decided that our first excursion would be to Volunteer Point, a place we fell in love with last time we were here. The next day we got Patrick to drive us out there, into the "camp" as it is called here - a bit of a mission in its self due to the lack of road and the many bogs that it is necessary to avoid. A land rover is an essential piece of kit out here. Volunteers now had a warden stationed onsite, and for the last 3 seasons it had been Rod and his wife, Phil. We got to know Rod pretty well. Due to the fact that the high winds threatened to rip our tent to shreds he allowed us to sleep in the portacabin, situated right next to the large colony of King penguins that are here all year round. He even cooked us a meal for dinner.
On our second night Rod insisted on cooking for us again, although he didn’t eat any himself (he has an aversion to onions - why he decided to include them I do not know). Again he plied me with beer and allowed us to sleep in the cabin. What a great bloke! We went out berry picking with him for an hour or so in the evening - Diddle Dee berries and unique to this part of the world and apparently make great jam. Rod also introduced us to Tea berries, which taste fantastic. They featured heavily in the many tea and cake sessions we shared with him.
We had planned to walk back to Johnson’s Harbour the next day to meet up with Patrick for a lift back to Stanley but as it turned our, Rod was heading that way and offered us a lift all the way back to Kay’s which worked out great.
The next day we took a FIGAS flight to Saunders Island (something Kay had been kind enough to book us onto the day before), another of our favorite haunts here. We flew in a tiny 6 seater plane, which was good fun. Saunders is the only Island with owners that "entertain" campers. There are other islands that would be great to visit but they are generally full board and we are talking big bucks.
When we arrived we met the landowner’s wife, Susan who drove us out to "the neck", a thin strip of land seperating 2 parts of the island. The attraction is that it is completely covered in penguins. On the 4X4 journey out there we watched the warm air puffs from the whales crusing around the island. We spent 2 nights camping at the "Swiss Hotel" at the neck, surrounded by wildlife. On our last day we hiked over to the end of the island to see the elephant seals (as well as a pod of dolphins playing in the surf). These are massive. The males can weigh upto 2000kg! |  |
We also scaled some cliffs to find a colony of black browed albatross. Finally to finish off our time here we made a final visit to the rock-hopper colony. As well as a few comedy moments like this one we managed to get really close to a particularly feisty chap who, for a leaving present came right upto us and promptly shat all over our camera and jackets, leaving us smelling of penguin and fish.
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The next morning "Little David" himself (the owner of the island) picked us up and drove us the hour back to the settlement and our flight back to Stanley. On the radio on the way one of the main stories was about a Stanley man who had been banned from his local pub for farting - its all go on the Falklands.
We spent our last afternoon and evening round at Rods watching penguins on the telly. As well as plenty more cake and chocolates he gave us a big pot of freshly made Diddle-dee jelly to take away with us. Looking forward to cracking that open in the near future.
We flew back to Stanley via Carcass Island, Port Howard, Darwin and MPA. What with the wind we were feeling pretty green by the time we arrived back at Kays. We settled down to read the latest copy of the The Penguin news.
We spent our last afternoon and evening on the Islands round at Rods watching penguins on the telly. As well as plenty more cake and chocolates he gave us a big pot of freshly made Diddle-dee jelly to take away with us. Looking forward to cracking that open in the near future.
Patrick, Kerry and Kay (Gnomes not included)
(A load of photos of the penguins on the neck were published in this months BBC wildlife magazine)
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