Falklands adventure

Eleven of us, in three Land Rover cars, a Defender (with a driver and a passenger), an old style Freelander (with a driver and four passengers), and my Evoque (with me and three passengers) had something of an adventure.  We drove to Whale Point from Stanley.   Now unless you know the Falkland Islands well you won't appreciate that the last ten miles or so of the journey are entirely off road.    When I say 'off road' I really mean off road.  In some places there was evidence of a track, in other places there was no evidence that any vehicle had passed this way before. Whale Point appears to have got its name from the ancient whale bones that can be found some distance from the shore.   I've no idea how they got there. The beach behind the whale bones is a beautiful white sand bay.  There are ducks, geese, petrel's, gulls and gentoo penguins.  There is a penguin colony in the dunes behind the beach. The penguins are always entertaining to watch.  Whether it is their

King Penguin’s bonding Foreplay Puritanical observer - who registered its objection by pecking Ahh Four of us and our driver ventured to Volunteer Point on Sunday.  It took around 2:30hrs to travel the 45 miles from Stanley.  About a third of the route was on tarmac, another third on consolidated gravel roads - and the final third was real off roaming travel on nothing more than the occasional track.   Volunteer Point is an isthmus with the open sea - the South Atlantic on one side and an inlet on the other.  It is home to large King Penguin and Gentoo breeding colonies along side each other with Magellanic Penguins nest in burrows in the nearby dunes. The bigger the penguin the cleaner the breeding colony!  The Gentoo colony positively stank.  The Magellanic’s burrows were fly infested.   Changing of the guard? Kings in front of Magellanics   Gentoo penguin on the march King Penguin colony The King Penguins appeared to swim for fun 

Last night a group of 10 of us took a 40 minute boat trip on the 'Darwin' from Stanley to Kidney Island.   Most tours in the Falkland Islands (note the use of the word 'in' - the preferred local way of describing such matters) are to see wildlife - this was no exception. Kidney Islands is covered in tussock grass.  This grass grows like pampas grass - and when mature grows to around 2m high.  As the 10 of us and our guide walked from the western side (where we landed) to the cliffs on the eastern side we had to navigate through it.  We had to make sure we could always see our colleagues in front of us.  If you dived off to one side you'd be lost within a couple of strides.  It was like a scene from Peter Pan with the lost-boys in the Jungle!  Apparently tussock grass makes excellent grazing and used to cover most of the Falkland Islands - it has largely been grazed away.  Tussock grass also makes excellent cover for nesting birds such as Sooty Shearwaters and Southe

View from Mount Tumbledown towards Stanley From my kitchen window I have a direct view of Sapper Hill - the scene of the last battle in the 1982 conflict with Argentina.  If I look to the right I can see Mount William and Mount Tumbledown.  So today, New Year's Day I decided to walk to Mount William - and then depending on the terrain and the weather perhaps I'd venture further.  The weather was cloudy and rainy in the morning so I delayed my departure until 11:30 when the rain stopped.  The skies were grey. Balsam bog makes for difficult walking conditions - the ground often moves beneath your feet. Dressed for calmer summer conditions - wearing factor 50 - Mt William behind Diddle-dee berries  Vanilla Daisy standing proud Dressed for summer - windy conditions - still wearing factor 50 and hiding from the sun Looking towards Stanley from Mt Tumbledown.  The harbour is formed by a sunken river Nature's window - on Mount William looking south The view from Mount William - a