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Exploring Lafonia on Horse Back By
Grant Munro
February 2004 As last Christmas
approached, I wondered how to spend the holiday. Re-clad my derelict
house? Realistically, a good intention that would never
happen. Go to the races followed by the normal round of barbecues
and drinks? I've done that for the last ten years and fancied a
change. The idea of riding around Lafonia was hatched the
weekend before Christmas during a visit to see my horse at Swan
Inlet. Andy Baker, the GAP student who has been working there for
the season, was also keen to see something more than Stanley through
blurred vision. The initial suggestion was to ride to Goose Green
and back over a couple of days, however this quickly developed into
heading off with saddlebags (maletas) and sleeping bags for the full
week. Andreas Short from Swan Inlet was happy to lend Andy a horse, Nat,
a large grey cobb, and I would use Fireball, my own horse. It
was short notice to get everything ready and over the next couple of days
calls were made to the relevant landowners, to see what paddocks and
out-houses could be used to overnight the horses, and the route was
revised a couple of times. As we did not have a spare horse to lead,
the distances planned were fairly conservative with plenty of time for the
horses to rest and graze. With hindsight we could have been a little
more optimistic, however the intention was to enjoy the ride, the scenery
and explore a little - not to break any trotting records. Shopping
also had to be done and split into the daily rations - one carrier bag of
goodies for us and one carrier bag of pony nuts for the transport.
The intention was to drop the stores off en route to that we could keep
the load the horses had to carry to a minimum. Again, without a
spare horse it was asking a bit much to carry not only us but also food
for eight days. On Christmas Eve all was set and I headed
off with landrover and bike to make the food drops. This left
Christmas Day and Boxing Day free to enjoy the festivities, make a set of
maletas - which Santa was unfortunately not able to supply - and hope for
good weather. It was decided windy would be OK, and wet would be OK,
but windy and wet would be bad. Andy and I headed back to Swan Inlet
on Boxing Day evening for an early start on the 27th. Day
One - 27th December
It was not an auspicious start - wet and windy! Rounding up the
horses they had a distinct case of "Wind up their arses",
bucking and farting the whole way into the corral and, once caught,
Fireball almost destroyed the newly-built stable when I geared him
up. We waited for a particularly nasty hail squall to pass and set
off quickly, in fact an at uncontrolled canter and gallop until we had
cleared Swan Inlet land when the horses, once they realised they were not
going on the customary circuit, settled to a steady trot which they kept
up for the next eight days. Four hours later we were in Goose Green
with Andy's maletas in two halves. This required a rethink on the
gear and everything went except a spare pair of underpants and socks and
the bottle of rum. We also found a video of Clint Eastwood in Hang
'em High to further get us in the mood for the rest of the ride. Day
Two - 28th December
The next day we rode on to Egg Harbour along the old tracks to Cobb's Pas
before branching off and riding via Dos Lomas shanty and the stone corral
at Kelp Creek. Stops were made at Dos Lomas for lunch and a quick
chat with the new age travelers encamped at Kelp Creek. A group was
out fencing from Goose Green and we stopped the night with them in the
House. Day Three - 29th December
Leaving Egg Harbour the next morning we set off down the coast of Falkland
Sound. The horses were not quite so lively as the preceding two
days, but went steadily, passing Schooner Hill, Cygnet Harbour, Port King
and on to Congo Ponds and Congo House, where we had planned to spend the
night. Since it was still relatively early we thought we would be
friendly and say hello to the neighbours so, after a brief look around, we
rode on to Wreck House to say hi to Tony and June McMullen who were there
for a few days between Christmas and New Year. They were not in so
we turned around and headed back to Congo House. We did however meet
them on the track and stopped for a natter and a tot. A small repair
had to be made to the top fence line in the horse paddock and a room swept
out with the goose wing that had been packed for that precise reason, and
we were all ready for the night. Bedding was the sheepskin and
horse blanket. Day Four - 30th December
The following day we headed back to Congo Ponds and up the fence line
round the back of White Hill to Pidgeon's Park Ponds, hoping
optimistically to find a gate at the corner of Laguna Isla. There
was a gate but unfortunately it was on the other side of the fence so we
had to back track to White Hill Gate and Swankies Nest and down to
Adventure Sound at Peat Banks Arroyo. The going was slow, due to
being mis-mothered and the general soggy nature of the camp, neither horse
being great in the wet. From Peat Banks Arroyo it was a short hop to
Sound House. Don Bonner was not at home so we repaired the bottom
fence and let the horses go in the house paddock and then retired to the
stables along with what sounded like a hundred house sparrows. Day
Five - 31st December
The next few days were fairly lazy. A short ride up the old track to
the Green Gate and across to the Trap House, where we met up with Janet
and John Jaffray and Bill Davis from Goose Green on a Christmas work
party. The transformation they had achieved was incredible with new
windows fitted and the rooms washed out. We helped dismantle the old
peat stove in the afternoon and after the evening feed we all lasted only
a couple of hours more before forgetting about any New Year festivities
and hitting the sack. Day Six - 1st January
The following day we set off for Low Bay shanty but given a hard track we
were there in an hour and a half so after some lunch and unloading the
maletas headed down the coast to Bluff Head to look at the Gentoo
colony. The horses, no doubt glad of the missing weight, turned it
into a trotting race. Low Bay shanty is, I guess, the old chicken
shed of the house that is no longer there and has had the addition of some
internal dog kennels along one side. These kennels gave the ideal
sleeping platform with the only disadvantage that we had to sleep head to
toe. As I drifted off to sleep without having had a change of
clothes or a bath in a week it was difficult to decide whether the feet
six inches in front of my head, the horse blanket I was lying on, or the
wafts that came out my sleeping bag as I moved were the most offensive. Day
Seven - 2nd January
The following day was heavy drizzle and low mist so, although we had
planned to ride down Motley Point, we decided, rather than get mis-mothered
in the mist and new fence lines, just to head straight to Walker
Creek. We didn't have any plans of where we were staying but Jose
and Betty kindly invited us in and gave us the use of their paddock.
A couple of hours later Andy had one of those spooky Falkland moments when
Bobby Short called for him - we hadn't known where we were staying or even
if we were staying in Walker Creek, so how did he know? It was also
the first opportunity to have a bath for a week and as a good guest not
wanting to cause offence to our hosts I had to ask for the "Jif Cream
Cleaner", not for me but for the impressive tidemark that had been
left behind. Day Eight - 3rd January
The ride round to Goose Green was our longest day of the trip.
Now that Bodie Creek Bridge is closed it is necessary to go round by the
Salt Water, old road camp and Orqueta. We followed the old track to
Arrow Harbour House and Bodie Creek Ponds before following the black flags
to the old road camp and round to Orqueta. I had stashed a bag of
food at Orqueta so we stopped for a long late lunch before loading up the
remaining supplies and carrying on to Goose Green having now completed the
circle. It was a sunny day with a strong wind and the horses went at
a steady trot all day. A steady trot that allowed both rider and
horse to fall asleep occasionally, until the horse tripped and woke up
with a start, a twitch of the ears and a quick look around. The
whole day was probably about seven hours with five and a half or six hours
riding, however after the first couple of days we forgot to pay much
attention to the clock and therefore cannot argue with the "old
timers" over how long they used to take leading fresh horses!
There was obviously a good deal of competition, so maybe it's just as
well. Day Nine - 4th January
The last day was a stunner and we rode back to Swan Inlet via
Burntside and Cerritos Corral and along the base of Mount Usborne to Black
Rock. The views were stupendous and it was almost possible to see
where we had rode for the previous week. In
total we rode for nine days. One day was nasty, three days were
excellent and the remainder were the type of day where, given the choice,
you might not go out but in fact, once you were out and bobbing along,
were not too bad at all. The views were stunning, especially riding
down Falkland Sound with the views of the West. The rolling openness
and feeling of space in Lafonia is incredible and, without getting
lyrical, I do not understand people who discount it as flat and
uninteresting. There was only one mishap on the trip on the
second last day at the Salt Water. We thought we would take a
shortcut across the creek, which turned out to be deeper than we thought
with a sudden drop off in the middle of the channel. Fireball shied
as he saw Nat drop into the channel, unfortunately just as he was dropping
over the edge himself. This left him on his side and me in the drink
on my bum and the gear in the maletas soaking wet. Having got to the
other side we discovered it wasn't even a short cut as a fence brought us
back to the same point as the track. Lesson: the track goes where it
goes for a reason. Thankfully the spare dry clothes, which had been
left at Goose Green, were there at the end of the day. The
horses lasted well and came back fitter but probably fatter. I had
dropped a carrier bag of pony nuts at every overnight stop thinking that
we might have to use lamb-marking pens to hold the horses overnight.
As it transpired we were able to use the house paddocks that were normally
knee deep in grass but it seemed a shame to waste the nuts. The
people lasted not too badly either. Once all the hair had been plucked
from my calfs, things became quite comfortable. I have to
say thank you to all the people that helped us along the way, especially
those that we stayed with, those that fed us (on the track and at home)
and Brian and Diana and Ian and Eileen for allowing us to ride across
Goose Green and North Arm land and to use the houses and paddocks. I
am already thinking of next season and a three-horse horsebox. Grant
Munro is a forester by profession. He arrived in the Falkland
Islands in 1991 whilst travelling around South America, and decided to
settle permanently. He has held a number of jobs, including forester
with the Department of Agriculture and General Manager of Consolidated
Fisheries Ltd. He is currently employed by Falklands
Conservation. Our thanks to Grant for allowing us to republish this
article which originally appeared in Penguin News.
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