Falklands blog for Sunday May 12 2013 Wildlife in the Falklands will always be an abiding memory. An empty landscape with howling winds and yet, on the post over there…. a variagated hawk, clinging onto the wood with a fierce determination. A very short spook distance (but a longer one for me) the claws relax and he is off speeding over the tussock. We are off too .. on our way home. A good trip out to MPA for the LAN flight to Chile. The incoming flight was early so the staff rushed off to process them and we were left waiting in limbo. Not many on the flight and with good legroom, we settled back to our journey to Santiago via Punta Arenas.
Santiago airport – modern efficiency, bright lights and our hotel 200 metres across the road – bliss. Fast, free unlimited wifi – more bliss! Off to Easter Island tomorrow
Falklands blog for Sunday May 12 2013 This blog was not written in the Falklands, but sort of qualifies as it is about our last few days and a farewell to the islands Friday and a visit out to see the beached false killer whales. Not really sure about what sort of whales these are but I am sure that one can google it. (They are a member of the dolphin family, are friendly to humans, and prey on other smaller cetaceans). A beach is never still, constantly shifting; disappearing and then coming back, sometimes years later. The whales were there, but almost completely buried in the sand. The turkey vultures were looking disappointed at the slim pickings. This beaching of whales on shallow beaches is not an uncommon event. The proof is there to see – scattered and bleached bones as far as the eye can see. Though of enormous size, they are surprisingly light. All the meaty goodness has been leached from them years ago, and today, they crumble to the touch.
Then on to see the Elephant seals up the hill past Pleasant Roads. A fierce wind made the chill factor an unpleasant force. The seals, covered in thick blubber, looked cozy and comfortable. The spooking distance was not great, but a long lens took care of the pictures. Best not to get between the bulls and their passage to the sea or between them and their harem. If you do intend to focus your attention on close up shots, then best to keep a spotter with you for close protection. The bulls attack in two ways: By biting – pretty unpleasant By rearing over you and then landing on your body – universally fatal and not to be recommended. When they recover your body, they can probably slide it under the door.
Falklands blog for Wednesday May 8 2013 Off to Goose Green via MPA. The road signs only seem to indicate directions from one side only, so off we toddled down to Mare Harbour – wrong way.
Goose Green, a photographers dream as always. Before we popped in, we stopped off at the Argentine Cemetery. Very peaceful – little wind on the hillside. What a waste of young men’s lives – the fallout from the “Conflict”
We visited the school – combined nursery, infant and junior school. A warm and sunny building, jam-packed with pictures, paintings and low slung fractions – a hazard to people of my height as cards bearing fractions and percentages were pegged to clothes lines across the room.
The jetty with resident night herons was visited as we searched for the settlement nanny goat – boy was she Not only strong but also had an unfortunate predilection for head butting.
Back up the road to San Carlos and Blue Beach Cemetery. Then back to Stanley – the lorry driver called it doing the Round Robin – travelling back along the unpaved road on the other side of the mountains – “No Man’s Land” At last to Estancia farm (literally farm, farm – look up the meaning of Estancia in Spanish) and to the fabulous stone runs. Lumps of quartz (actually enormous boulders) deposited by ice sheets after the tops of the mountains had been scoured by the last ice age. The stone runs off the mountains and is almost impossible to traverse without serious orthopaedic trauma to your ankles. It is beautiful though and is commented on by Darwin after his visit to the Islands.
Over the range and we joined the MPA road, a quick left turn and off homeward.
A sense of achievement and a realisation that to understand these islands you need to know their geology.
Our transport
Falkland Islands version of the M25. You can get on but you can never get off
Guest blog for Tuesday May 7 2013 Food shopping here in Stanley is both a pleasure and a shock to the system .. choice is limited (that is sometimes a good thing) and you have to be alert to the different prices of your every day goods. Salad is a luxury – high quality meat so cheap – 300g of steak mince for 80p Life is not all shopping fun though. As Winnie the Pooh says we went on an Expotition.
My first expedition with Ian was to Cape Pembrook lighthouse and the Atlantic Conveyor Memorial – the wreck is 90 miles off the cape. Gypsy cove was next .. penguin sighting was exactly zero that day but fortunately we returned at dusk to see one lone straggler on the beach. The local diddle-dee berry and the tea berry were in abundance under our feet – the locals do make jam with them but I will never complain about berry picking at home after seeing how painstaking it is to gather these. The jam has a tart flavour and is definitely a luxury and probably does not suit all palates. Great food for all the local birds. Upland goose is tastiest at this time of year as they had their fill of the berries.
When we landed at Mount Pleasant I felt apprehensive but also so excited to finally arrive. A bit more form filling was required. I had entered and left Chile in one day with nothing to declare but still had to pass Customs one more time. Such a ‘pleasant’ experience. My troubles were however not at an end. My bag was last onto the conveyor .. I spent my first quarter hour in the Falklands apprehensively checking the belt for my bag. Then, my booked pickup driver left me and others stranded at the airport. She eventually came back after being told that there were passengers to be picked up as well as those to be dropped off.
It is hard to describe the journey into Stanley …such a beautiful sky and unusual and dramatic scenery. I was so engrossed with chatting to my two interesting companions that I forgot to take one single photo. This mistake will not be repeated on the return journey. Of my fellow passengers, one was a local who works at Seal Island and lives, while in Stanley, in a very traditional FI house (photo below). The other, a nursery teacher, has been here for a few years. By the end of the journey she was asking me to come in and help with the preschool outing to the Fire Station.
More mixups re address but finally arrived at my destination. Ian really is here and living in this ‘traditional style’ house and working at the hospital (blue roof)
More to follow … Diddle-dee berries and lighthouses.
Falklands blog for Thursday May 2 2013 Down to Gypsy Cove as the sun was setting. Perhaps there was a straggler still there, enjoying the Indian Summer that is blessing the Falklands. All the burrows we looked in were empty but just then, halfway down the beach stood a Jackass penguin – he looked at the pair of Upland geese next to us and was not bothered, but he did not like the look of us. His passage down the beach was precipitate. He scooted in his belly with his flipper wings digging into the white sand like sabres. Hitting the water at speed, he then accelerated out into,the crystal clear light green waters of the bay and was gone. The beach was empty.
Moulting finished, the rest of the Magellanic penguins have headed off to South America and will only return next year to breed on these islands. The Rockhoppers have also left, leaving the Kings and Gentoos behind.
Some birds have stayed behind. I have a new favourite – the Military Starling. What is not to like?
Guest Falklands blog for Tuesday April 30 2013 I don’t normally grant privileges on this site, but when faced with force majeure, what can you do?
My trip to the Falklands had been planned for a long time and the day had finally arrived. It was an awfully big adventure and an experience of a lifetime involving five flights over two days. One very short change over in Sao Paulo saw me running around getting directions over and over again and finally joining the queue to board just in time. The views out of the window on the flight into Santiago were spectacular and it is not everyday you get told to fasten your seat belt and to expect some turbulence because you are flying over the Andes! I was still smiling about that when I was waiting and waiting for my bag. It however was not so smart and decided to miss that flight. My suitcase joined me the following morning at 01:30; after being presented to a fellow passenger in the hotel who was also really missing his luggage. My experience was not unusual (hence the luggage display in Arturo Merino Benitez Airport) – I met 3 friendly Falkland Islanders who reassured me that this was normal on this route. So far from home, yet on chatting, we had so much in common even though they live over 7000 miles from the UK. So with bag now in tow I headed off for the last leg. The view from the plane made me forget my troubles;it was straight out of a David Attenborough programme … Mountains for nearly 3 hours … impossible to explain.
Falklands blog for Tuesday April 30 2013 There are many different birds in Stanley. Domesticated ducks are one of my favourites. Is it the eggs? Is it “Duck a la Orange”? No, it is the quack. Nothing like it for raising the spirits. Sitting on the sofa – well to be honest, lying down on the sofa and enjoying the ambient noises drifting in through the partly open window. Every now and again, my neighbour’s ducks quacking floats through the window as a laughing quack. It makes me smile, relax and I know all is fine in this small corner of the world
