Falkland Islands

After stops in Southern Chile and Argentina, we finally arrived in the Falkland Islands. The airport is a British Military Base on the southern side of the East Falkland Island. From there we made our way across the barren landscape dotted with grazing sheep, past stone runs and landmines to Stanley, about an hour on the partially sealed roads. Stanley is a City (it has its own Cathedral) of less than 3,000 people. With it’s red telephone boxes, rows of cottages and union jacks flying it has the character of a small English village which time has forgotten for the past 40 years. The smell of burning peat, used by locals to fuel their homes drifts through the town. We had a tour of the city sights which included some 100 year old ship wrecks and a memorial to the 1982 war. The following day we headed off-road to Bluff Cove, about 40 minutes from Stanley to get our first sighting of Happy Feet. We watched hundred’s of Gentoo Penguins carefully sitting on their eggs. Every so often they would stand up and gently roll the egg with their feet to stop the inside of the egg sticking to it’s shell. We were also lucky enough to see half a dozen King Penguins and a couple of brown fluffy chicks. Whilst we enjoyed some local cakes and tea, some of the Gentoo’s began to waddle along the beach and dive into the surf. In the afternoon we headed out past the minefields to a local sheep farm where we helped to cut peat and watched the sheep being shorn. Looking out across the bay to St Lois a solitary King penguin had also decided to visit us at the farm. From there we crossed back across the Island and boarded our shop, the Polar Pioneer. As a beautiful sunset lit up the sky over Stanley we set off on the long voyage down to South Georgia.