For The Love of Travel

Saunders is the fourth largest island in the Falklands, and is run as a sheep farm and has an area of 132 square kilometres. Dolphins escorted us in our zodiac, to the island!  

We watched the black-browed albatross chicks nest and moult on the cliff edge, while their parents performed aerial acrobatics and came in for very clumsy grass slope landings…very entertaining. 

And then saw some Magellanic penguins, standing near their burrows.  

When we arrived at Carcass Island in the afternoon, the sunshine was shining, it was ‘hot’ (temperature of 15C, requiring no windbreak clothing nor thermals!!).  Monterey palms were blowing in the breeze, the sea was turquoise blue….and a little yellow yacht was bouncing on the waves. We were slightly confused, a bit mediterranean in feel!! We saw the crested caracara falcon nesting in a tree with its mate, and black-crowned night herons chirping away.   

Our last landing on this most splendid of holidays (and the last time I take off the muck boots, yay!) – we are at sea tomorrow, sailing for Ushuaia, then onto a charter flight to Buenos Aires on 8/3.

The Australian contingent (15) on the ship had a special dinner tonight in the chart room….a lot of fun, there are some characters!

The town was established here in the 1840’s, chosen for the sheltered harbour and abundant supplies of peat and fresh water nearby. Stanley is the hub of the Falklands with development of local industries and depopulation of the countryside leading to the town, doubling its size, in the last 25 years.

A group of us visited the Long Island farm, with a huge number of sheep, and a large peat bog area that they dig up for heating and also sell to the local community.   We got to see Mt Harriet, where the English army (unexpectedly) attacked the Argentinians encamped on the mountain from the rear, leading to the eventual capitulation of Argentina in the war.

And saw a geological area called ‘the Runes’ – where rivulets of rock that had tumbled down from the top of the mountain where a glacier had been progressively receding.

The museum in Stanley has a 10 minute video of adults talking about their childhood in 1982 and the impact on them of the 74 day war between England and Argentina. I wandered around town taking photos of houses, garden, a ‘liberation’ monument and a tribute to the Beagle, the ship that brought Captain Fitzroy from England (with a young Charles Darwin aboard).

Tonight, one of the naturalist staff on board, Rodolpho from Argentina, spoke about how many Argentinians didn’t want the war, nor to fight in the Falklands, but were forced to participate being threatened with dire consequences, if they did not. He wrote a beautiful poem in Spanish about peace and freedom in response to the war taking place – and read it to us (then his translated English version). Very emotional moment.

Gorgeous sunset around 10pm…