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A Visitor's View of the Falkland Islands By Pearl Inglis Journeying to the Islands Having booked our flights, we prepared excitedly for
our long journey. We knew that
the Falklands Islands are in the antipodes and hoped for sunshine in early
December. Our flight left from
RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, the RAF’s ‘Heathrow’ – no
civilian airline flies direct from Britain to the Falkland Islands,
although there are weekly return flights to the Islands every Saturday
from Santiago, the capital of Chile. It took a long eight hours to reach Ascension Island
where the plane was to refuel and the crew change.
We expected to spend one hour in the airport compound – a grim
stretch of concrete surrounded by barbed wire with access to a small grimy
terminal with minimal facilities – before reboarding and travelling onto
Falkland Islands. However, we
were required to spend many more hours in Ascension, as one of the new
crew had been in an accident, suffered slight concussion, and needed to
spend 12 hours resting before flying.
We were all bussed to ‘Bunk Bed City’, an RAF transit camp –
long blocks of bunk-bedded rooms, concrete floored, with a toilet/washing
block some distance away – very primitive.
After a cafeteria lunch I had a brief siesta then David came
rushing in with the news that a bus tour of the island was on offer,
leaving immediately. Needless
to say we caught the bus. We returned to our accommodation, were given
dinner, slept, and shortly afterwards bussed back to the airport to await
our flight. Another eight
hours in the air and we landed at approximately 2.30 a.m. Falklands time.
Jason was there to meet us, so we collected our luggage and were
gratefully driven through the dark to Alison’s house. Ascension
Island Ascension is a very small island close to the
equator, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, thousands of miles from
anywhere. It has no native
inhabitants, but is used as a US Air Force base, RAF refuelling point, BBC
World Service transmitter station, and European Space Agency tracking
station. The surface of the
island is composed of red sand and rock – rather like a moonscape –
but with a few patches of scrubby grass and low shrubs.
The sun shines hotly all day, and there is very little shade
anywhere. But there are
glorious golden beaches, and somewhere (though we didn’t see them)
native green turtles and wild donkeys, the latter descendants of 19th
c. pack beasts introduced by early settlers.
I am told that the higher one goes on the island the greener and
lusher the vegetation becomes, hence the name Green Mountain.
Driving around we were amused to see that an enthusiast had created
a nine-hole golf course on a patch of scrubland, no grass!
The principal settlement (and there are less than a thousand
inhabitants in all) is Georgetown where there is a typical 19th
century colonial office, white-painted and with a covered, shaded verandah
running around the building on the ground and first floors, Union Jack
flying and black-painted cannon outside. Geography The
Falkland Islands lie in the South Atlantic approximately 300 miles to the
east of the tip of South America. There
are two main islands, East and West Falkland, which are divided by
Falkland Sound, and approximately 200 smaller islands of varying size of
which about 30 are inhabited. The
total land area is about the same size as Wales.
The Islands have a deeply indented coast and possess many natural
anchorages. The surface is
hilly, the highest hill being Mount Usborne on East Falkland at 2,312
feet. Flora Much of the upland is comparatively bare of
vegetation, mostly covered with wild moorland interrupted with scree and
outcrops of rocks, and stone runs or ‘rivers of stone’, long runs of
very large rocky boulders. The
lower ground is extensively grazed by sheep and covered with rough grass.
Where no sheep are to be found the ground coverage is a mixture of
miniature ferns, low-lying ground plants including several edible berries
and, in summer, a selection of delicate wildflowers, mostly white.
Outside Stanley there is no cultivation except in the immediate
vicinity of the farmhouses, and even here kitchen gardens have been
neglected as travel to Stanley becomes easier and frozen and canned food
more readily available. There
are no native trees, and few have been planted, but around every farmhouse
and settlement there are large stretches of gorse hedges, introduced by
Scottish settlers. Climate The
climate is temperate, with similar winters to the UK but cooler summers.
The sun shines for an average of 1,650 hours per year, compared to
a UK average of 1,484 hours. Winter
days are still, sunny and dazzlingly clear – apart from during vicious
southerly snowstorms – but in summer a strong wind blows all day to die
away at night. The Islands are
famed for their wonderful sunrises and sunsets.
They are increasingly affected by climate change, because of their
proximity to the Antarctic, with summers becoming colder and wetter and
winters milder over time. The
annual rainfall is still far lower than the UK, particularly in the west
of the archipelago. During the
antipodean spring the Islands sit beneath a hole in the ozone layer, and
the residents are very careful in their use of sunscreen and sunglasses. Population The present population of the Islands totals
approximately 2,400 of whom about 1,800 live in Stanley.
The first settlers arrived from Britain in 1833, and by 1900 the
population had increased to about 2,000.
There are a few large farm settlements and the rest of the
population live on small family-run farms.
Over the past decade the population has gradually shifted into
Stanley, as the booming economy has created new jobs in town while
changing patterns in agriculture have lessened the demand for farm
workers. The population of the
largest farm settlement, Goose Green, has dropped from about 100 in 1982
to about 40 today. The
population is largely British in origin, with substantial numbers of
Chilean and Saint Helenian workers, some of whom have settled permanently
in the Islands. Early
History The Falkland Islands were discovered by John Davis on
14 August 1592 and became known as Davis Southern Land, although the
Argentines assert that the discovery of the Falkland Islands was made by
Estaban Comez, one of Magellan’s captains.
The first recorded landing was on 29 January 1690 by Captain John
Strong, who named the Sound between East and West islands ‘Falkland
Sound’ after Viscount Falkland, the Treasurer of the Royal Navy.
During the mid-18th century Britain maintained a marine
depot on Saunders Island on the west of the archipelago.
Meantime French settlers established themselves at Port Louis, East
Falkland in 1764 before selling their interest in the Islands to the
Spanish in 1767. For a time
the British and French/Spanish inhabitants were unaware of the other’s
existence. Both withdrew
towards the end of the 18th century, leaving the Islands
uninhabited apart from visits by whalers and sealers of all nationalities.
Argentine
Claim Argentina’s claim to the Falkland Islands is
threefold: the first is geographical; the second is based on the Papal
Decree giving new lands in the Americas to Spain; the third is that she
considers herself a successor to Spain as the territorial authority of the
18th c. Argentina’s
name for the Islands of ‘Las Malvinas’ is a hispanisation of ‘Iles
Malouines’, said to be after St. Malo in Brittany, home of the early
French settlers. British
Settlers In 1833 Britain decided to settle the Islands as a
supply and maintenance depot for ships rounding Cape Horn.
In 1841 Richard Moody, aged 28, was appointed the first Governor of
the Islands and in 1845 he moved the capital from Port Louis to Stanley
because of the latter’s superb natural anchorage.
The first industry was the exploitation for their
hides of wild cattle, descended from beasts introduced by French settlers.
In the 1870s the cattle industry gave way to sheep ranching, and by
1885 the territory was self-supporting.
The sheep still form the backbone of the Islands’ agriculture and
are kept for their wool which today is exported to Bradford, UK.
The flocks number thousands of animals, but motorbikes have largely
replaced horses as the shepherds’ principal mode of transport.
Many of the shepherds came from Mull and other parts of Scotland,
and also from the sheep districts of Somerset, but there were also South
American gauchos whose influence is still seen today in the distinctive
horsegear. Stanley grew into a busy port, repairing and
provisioning ships rounding Cape Horn en route to California and
Australia, and also acting as a base for the whaling and sealing vessels
attracted by the lure of the Southern Oceans.
That by-gone era is recalled in the ruins of Ajax Bay whaling
factory on East Falkland and by the well-preserved buildings on South
Georgia, three days travel to the south of the Falklands. The crossing round Cape Horn proved too rough for
many vessels, and over two hundred ships were wrecked off the Islands’
rocky coastline. Today Stanley
is the finest graveyard of 19th century shipping in the world.
For some years the port had a more unsavoury name, as Stanley
shipwrights and chandlers, not content with charging high prices to
visiting ships, gained a (perhaps undeserved) reputation for encouraging
owners to abandon their vessels so that the wood-starved colony could
profit from the hulks, many of which were turned into floating warehouses.
The most famous wreck was Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s vision, the
SS Great Britain, the first ship with screw propulsion and in her day the
largest ship in the world, now restored to her home port of Bristol,
although the mizzen mast remained in Stanley. The naturalist Charles Darwin called at the Falkland
Islands in 1833 and 1834. He
recorded the flora and fauna and his visits were commemorated in several
place names. Darwin
Settlement, Beagle Ridge and Fitzroy Settlement are named after the
naturalist, his ship and captain respectively.
The names of four ships closely associated with the Falkland
Islands – including the Beagle – are picked out in white-painted rocks
on the hillside opposite Stanley. World
War One Wireless communication with the outside world was
opened in 1912, and in December 1914 the Islands were the scene of a
famous British naval victory when a small British flotilla destroyed a
large German fleet under Admiral Graf von Spee.
Each year, early in December, the 1914 Battle of the Falklands is
commemorated by a Public Holiday. There
is a church parade, attended by the Governor who later travels in
procession from the Cathedral to the 1914 Monument (built by and at the
expense of Islanders after the end of WW1, just as the 1982 Monument also
in Stanley was erected by Islanders after their Liberation).
At the Monument the Governor takes the salute of parading
contingents from the Falkland Islands Defence Force and the naval guard
ship, Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, and others, before in a solemn moment
wreaths are laid in commemoration of the dead of both fleets. World
War Two During the Second World War the Falkland Islands
proved their value as a naval base, and this is where Jason’s
grandfather The
1982 Conflict with Argentina Argentina
still maintains its territorial claim to the Falkland Islands, a claim
first propounded by Peron as a way of uniting post-war Argentinian
society. On 2 April 1982
Argentina invaded the Islands along with two other small British
territories in the south-west Atlantic – South Georgia and the South
Sandwich Islands. Britain
immediately broke off diplomatic relations with Argentina, imposed an arms
embargo on the country, and introduced trade and financial restrictions.
Diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful solution were unsuccessful
and Britain sent troops and equipment to repossess the Islands.
The Argentine forces surrendered on 14 June 1982.
The conflict lasted only 10 weeks but was hard-fought.
Unfortunately the terrible legacy of this invasion is the large
number of minefields, many on beautiful beaches. All
over the Islands are memorials to British servicemen and sailors who
fought and died in 1982, and in Stanley there is a large memorial giving
the name of every Briton who died in the conflict including three
Islanders killed in the last day of the fighting when a British shell
accidentally hit a civilian house. David
and I spent a weekend at Blue Beach, where the main thrust of the British
forces landed, and visited the beautiful circular-walled graveyard where
Colonel ‘H’ Jones (one of two British paratroopers to be awarded the
Victoria Cross in the Conflict) and his companions are buried. The Argentines first action on invading was to
capture the small detachment of marines stationed on the Islands, and to
forcibly repatriate them along with Governor Rex Hunt and other senior
officials including the Chief of Police.
Other British expatriates such as teachers and engineers were given
the opportunity to leave, although most of the medical staff remained to
man the hospital through the war. Economy Today
the economy is small and undiversified.
The days of cattle exploitation, sealing and whaling are gone, and
sheep ranching for wool production is waning as demand for wool drops in
the face of cheaper man-made fibres. There
are few natural resources, the population is small and the Islands are
remote from external markets. Exploitation
of the Islands’ rich kelp beds has repeatedly failed, and the many craft
items produced by talented Islanders are sold only in the local shops.
Oil exploration commenced in 1993, and although the results are
encouraging full-scale production has not yet been attempted. Almost
all the land is covered with rough pasture of low nutritional value, but
pasture improvement schemes are underway, and agricultural diversification
is being encouraged into guanaco (a wild llama), cashmere goats, pork,
breeding sheep and cattle for beef production, and smoking the local wild
upland goose breast. One of
the most innovative ideas is the importation of young reindeer from South
Georgia, the only herd in the world untouched by radiation from Chernobyl.
Salmon ranching has been tried in the past, and current experiments
are on-going into oyster and mussel production.
The
largest source of income is derived from the licensing and control of
fishing within the Islands’ Fisheries Conservation Zone.
This is a rich source of income and, apart from the military base
at Mount Pleasant, the Islands are entirely self-supporting.
The money from fishing is reinvested into the Islands’ education
and health services, and into improving the infrastructure, including the
construction of a network of dirt roads on East and West Falkland and the
building of new jetties which form a lifeline to the outer Islands and
more isolated farms. Sea
deliveries are made by the supply ship Tamar, locally owned and crewed.
The Falkland Islanders are also actively investing in the fishing
industry, both through commercial activity – running locally-registered
fishing vessels and acting as agents for foreign boats – and
government’s research and management programme which includes the
maintenance of two armed fisheries vessels as protection against far
eastern poachers. The
Falkland Islands are a popular destination for cruise ships, cruising the
shores of South America or venturing onto the Antarctic.
In the antipodean summer season 1999/2000 32,000 cruise-ship
visitors came ashore on day trips, mostly in Stanley but a few smaller
ships anchored off some of the outer Islands to allow visitors the
opportunity to see the Islands’ wonderful wildlife. Cruise-ships
visitors are important customers in the Stanley gift shops, and are also
attracted to the world-famous Falkland Islands Philatelic Bureau.
Many new stamps are issued each year, and demand for these is
world-wide. Land tourists, on
two-four week holidays, are warmly welcomed and are slowly increasing in
numbers, drawn by the wildlife, fishing (the Islands reputedly have the
best trout fishing in the world) and by specialist interests such as
stamps, shipping or the 1982 Conflict.
There are two hotels and several guest-houses in Stanley, and a
growing network of tourist lodges
in the
countryside. Education Young
children have a wonderful time on the Islands – there is space to play
and few restrictions. In
Stanley there are two private nurseries for babies and toddlers.
The Government offers 10 hours a week of free nursery (pre-school) places to 3
year olds.
Education is free and compulsory for all children between the ages
of 4 and 16. Children who live
outside Stanley receive lessons by telephone, and are visited by one of a
team of travelling teachers for one in every three weeks.
All children are encouraged to come into Stanley for secondary
education, although this is not compulsory, and free lodging is provided
in the School Hostel. For
senior secondary education, academic pupils are sent as boarders to the
Peter Symonds Sixth Form College in Winchester to study for their
A-levels, returning to the Falkland Islands three times during the two
year course. The Falkland
Islands Government runs an excellent apprentice scheme in many different
trades, and has close links with technical colleges in the UK.
All young people are encouraged to train and qualify in their
chosen fields. College and
university education is encouraged, and upon completion of their training
successful students are welcomed home to the Islands to take up suitable
posts in Government and industry. It
is the policy of the Falkland Islands Government to fill all vacant posts
with suitably qualified and/or experienced Falkland Islanders.
All education, including maintenance grants for A-level, college
and university students, is paid for by the Falkland Islands Government. The
Churches The first Christians worshipped in a warehouse above the dockyard, but today Stanley has a non-conformist church, a Roman Catholic chapel, and an Episcopal Cathedral. Bishop Stirling, a missionary with the Patagonian Missionary Society, was ordained as the first Bishop of the Falkland Islands in Westminster Abbey on 21 December 1869. Bishop Stirling served the people of the Falkland Islands for 30 years, later becoming Canon of Wells Cathedral. Until well into the twentieth century the Bishop of the Falkland Islands had episcopal authority over the whole of South America, until the Bishop’s seat shifted to Buenos Aires. In 1982 Argentinian episcopal authority over the Falkland Islands was abolished, and today the Rector of the Cathedral reports direct to the Archbishop of Canterbury while receiving pastoral guidance from the Bishop of Chile in Santiago. The resident Monseigneur of St. Mary’s, Stanley is responsible for the Roman Catholic Prefecture of the South Atlantic Islands, and travels as required to Ascension, St. Helena and Tristan da Cunha. The priest and rector played a vital part in strengthening community morale in 1982. Change in Farming Patterns The development of the Falkland Islands was
closely linked with the Falkland Islands Company, founded by Royal Charter
in 1851. The FIC invested
heavily in land, and by the 1970s was the largest farm owner in the
Islands. Each farm would cover
100,000 acres plus and was based around a large settlement housing dozens
of single farmhands in the bunkhouse, and several families in tied houses.
There would be many outlying shepherds’ houses.
The farm managers were autocrats who managed large numbers of
employees, and enjoyed good salaries and pension schemes, overseas
education for their children, and spacious accommodation run by several
servants. Some farms were
owned by overseas interests – who unlike the FIC did not reinvest in the
Islands – while others were owner-run. In the late 1970s the UK Government commissioned
Lord Shackleton – son of the famous Antarctic explorer, Sir Ernest
Shackleton – to conduct a comprehensive survey into the Islands’
economy. The Shackleton Report
made two major recommendations: the subdivision of the large ranches, and
the introduction of a fisheries licensing regime.
Although the waters around the Falkland Islands had been exploited
by Soviet and Polish fishing vessels since the 1950s, the fisheries
licensing regime was not implemented until the mid-1980s.
With Government support and encouragement, large landowners began
tentatively to subdivide their farms into family-sized units, and this
process was accelerated post-1982 culminating in the sale in April 1991 by
the FIC to the Falkland Islands Government of its remaining farms.
The new farm units were awarded to successful bidders according to
a points system – proven experience, business acumen, family support
(most farms are run by a husband and wife team), financial backing etc.
Only about 5 per cent of the Islands’ total land area is now
owned by overseas interests. The splitting-up of the farms permanently changed the way of life outside Stanley as large settlements were abandoned to two or three families whose farms were based around the settlement, the other successful bidders erecting houses, barns and sheds – sometimes by dragging the buildings from the settlement – on their farms many miles from the settlement. Farming became very isolated, although this is easing with the growing road network. Trade The Falkland Islands Company had always had interests in trading, as well as farming, running Stanley’s principal grocery store. It has diversified its retail interests into clothing, footwear, furniture, household goods, building supplies, books, stationery, toys, electronic goods and tourist gifts. Magazines are imported by sea and arrive two months late, but the only newspaper is the local Penguin News. There are another twenty shops in Stanley, many operated part-time only. There are many successful tradesmen. The Islands have always attracted naturalists, photographers and artists, many of whom have settled in the Islands, and produce craft items for sale in Stanley’s gift shops. The most popular is the ‘Falklander’ jumper designed with the help of Jeff Banks from BBC’s The Clothes Show. A hydroponic market garden was established some 15 years ago in Stanley, and now supplies salad vegetables to residents, hotels, visiting cruise ships and even exports produce to Ascension Island. Many of the fishing boats which visit the Falkland Islands are from Korea, Taiwan or Japan (the other major player is Spain) and the market garden supplies the fishing boats with fresh Asian vegetables. It also imports garden supplies and plants for residents. Life in Stanley Stanley is the administrative centre of the
Falkland Islands, and its only town. Its
focus is Government House, the residence of the Governor and his family,
and the offices of his staff. The
Governor is a UK diplomat, and the current Governor Donald Alexander
Lamont has connections with Ardfern in Argyll; both he and his wife Lynda
are Scots. The primary and secondary schools, nurseries,
swimming pool and sports centre, hospital, police station, courthouse,
fire station, town hall, post office, tourist centre, shops, churches and
the offices of the Falkland Islands Government are situated there together
with a small detachment from the army’s Explosive Ordnance Division and
a branch of the Standard Chartered Bank.
Legend has it that Margaret Thatcher was a personal friend of the
chairman of the bank and persuaded him to open the branch in 1983.
Before then banking services were offered by the Government. In the heart of the town are rows of pioneer
cottages, built by the early settlers, many of whom were Chelsea
Pensioners – retired soldiers in their 30s and 40s who came out to the
Islands to start a new life with their families.
These cottages were imported in kit form in the 1850s, just as most
houses today are built from timber kit.
The non-conformist Tabernacle and St. Mary’s R.C. chapel were
also built towards the end of the 19th c. from timber kits,
while the Cathedral was built from imported red and yellow brick.
The remaining bricks were used to build Jubilee Villas, an imposing
terrace on the waterfront. The
nearby Cape Pembroke lighthouse – the only one in the Islands – was
also a Victorian kit, this time in iron.
Also close to the harbour is the Philomel Store, an old shop which
sells an eclectic mix of goods and was named for one of the great sailing
ships associated with the Islands. The Internet arrived in Stanley in November 1997, just days before Alison, and has transformed life in the Islands. ‘Surfing the net’ and Internet shopping are now popular pastimes, although catalogue shopping – particularly for clothes or through the local agents for Argos and Ikea – remains popular. The military provide one television channel, showing the most popular British shows culled from all five UK channels. Video hire and purchase is popular, as are computer games. BBC World Service is available. The Falkland Islands Broadcasting Station broadcasts for 8 hours a day, and breakfast radio is live from the military base at Mount Pleasant. The military also provides BFBS 2, an amalgam of Five Live, Radio Four and ‘made for military’ programmes. Groceries Shopping in the Falkland Islands is a rather different experience. The shops stock a good selection of frozen, tinned and packet food but shortages on certain items are not unknown – particularly frozen goods. Meat is ordered direct from the farmer – when Alison wanted to buy meat for her freezer she found she was expected to buy half a cow or a whole mutton, and butcher it herself! –or bought from a new farm shop, selling fresh local produce. Deep-sea fish (squid, toothfish, kingclip, hake) is ordered by the kilo from a local fishing agency, and delivered ready for the freezer. Trout and mullet are caught (trout requires a licence) from local streams. Some fresh salad and root vegetables come from the hydroponic nursery and local farms respectively, but most vegetables and almost all fruit is imported. All food prices are higher than the UK, except local meat and fish, but this is particularly marked with fruit and vegetables. Perhaps this explains the booming trade in vitamin and mineral supplements. Food is often sold past its sell-by date, frequently from unknown brands, and I was astonished to find corned beef from China. There are two local bakeries and a dairy, but many people bake their own bread and cakes. Generally residents are proud of their culinary skills. Health Care I discovered that many simple medications are unavailable in the shops, but prescriptions are free (even for visitors) and it is possible to phone and consult a doctor the same day. Alison enjoys free medical and dental care, with regular appointments with visiting dental hygienists and opticians. The King Edward VII Memorial Hospital in Stanley is small but first rate with modern equipment including an operating theatre, a high staff to patient ratio, and many ancillary services. If required, consultants are flown in or patients are flown to the UK for specialist treatment. Sheltered housing is close by and there is special care of the elderly. Housing Housing is in short supply in Stanley, because of the
increasing population (both from immigration and a high birth rate by
European standards) and the move into town from the farm settlements, many
of which stand largely empty. The
Government is helping to alleviate the situation by building houses to
rent and by developing a large area to the east of the town as building
plots with services and access roads.
Building plots are in demand, and are allocated to local residents
according to their priority of need. Jason
was lucky to be allotted a spacious site opposite the harbour entrance
with stunning views to west, east and north (the direction the sun shines
from) and a private rocky garden to the rear full of native plants.
Jason lived with his parents until he obtained a plot – which
luckily became available shortly after he and Alison became engaged, his
name had been on the waiting list for some 3 years – and many young
people find their only other option is to rent a mobile home from
Government or find somewhere to site a portacabin.
Like all professionals hired by Government, Alison was fortunate to
be provided with a spacious house, which she gave up when their new house
was completed only weeks before the wedding.
Building costs are much the same as in the UK, the cost of shipping
the house-kit being off-set by the absence of VAT, but land is much
cheaper. Almost all houses are
built of wood and have corrugated metal roofs.
The houses are painted in bright colours – Jason and Alison’s
new home is painted mid-blue with a bright red roof – and several sport
Union Jacks or the Falkland Islands flag on their roofs or walls.
In fact, more Union Jacks fly from private flagpoles and car
aerials in the Falklands than I have seen in Britain. Our Holiday On our first evening Alison and Jason drove David
and I to Gypsy Cove, a local beauty spot which is famous for its
magellanic, or jackass, penguins. They
nest underground, coming up to walk down to the sea, dive and feed, then
return to feed their young. They
make a hee-haw noise, hence the nickname jackass.
This was the first time David and I had seen penguins outwith a
zoo, or so many, and we were fascinated.
It was a wonderful experience. We spent our first weekend in a cottage at Port San
Carlos, with Alison and some of her friends (Jason is a telecommunications
engineer and was on call with Cable & Wireless that weekend, so he
couldn’t leave Stanley). This
time we travelled in a convoy of three vehicles, and had a wonderful time
visiting remote beaches inhabited only by steamer ducks, kelp geese and
oystercatchers. We also saw
rockhopper penguins, the smallest of the species, and very lively.
They live in large colonies on rocky outcrops far above crashing
waves, and jump from rock to rock down to the sea, generally diving the
last few feet, then waiting on the crest of a wave before jumping back
onto a rock and beginning their long journey up. Another day Alison arranged an overland trip in a
large four-wheel drive vehicle to Volunteer Point where the Islands’
only large colony of king penguins – about three hundred of them – is
to be found. There were also
several hundred gentoo penguins nearby, another small penguin which lives
in colonies on grassland anything up to a mile from the sea.
The gentoos walk each day down to the sea in single file, always
seeming to take the same route. Their
nests are roughly made of twigs and grass and it was amusing to see
thieving penguins being chased by another.
Always, however, there is danger to the chicks from birds of prey
and the parents do not leave the nest together.
The journey to Volunteer crossed miles and miles of moorland,
through small streams and peat bogs. ‘Bogging’
is a popular pastime among young Islanders and soldiers, but not something
I would recommend! We found
the king penguins all standing to attention (they never seem to lie down)
with dozens of chicks, who seemed larger than the adults in their fluffy
brown down. The chicks were in
various stages of change to becoming adult, which entails the shedding of
the brown downy ‘baby’ coat and the appearance underneath of the adult
black and white coat with the distinctive orange flashes around eyes and
throat. King penguins are the
largest of the species to be found in the Islands.
Adult kings have a kind of long skirt which hides their eggs which
they balance on their feet. Eggs
come singly, incubate for 54-55 days, and the chick is reared for 11
months. Later in our stay we drove with Alison and Jason to Darwin where there is a new lodge, or small hotel. This is a conversion of the former settlement manager’s house, and is five-star accommodation. Darwin is a small settlement with scattered houses, unusually some of them made of stone. There is a small old graveyard and the Argentine cemetery. After the 1982 conflict Argentina refused to remove her dead from the Falkland Islands, claiming that Argentine soldiers had died on Argentine territory. Relatives of the dead have been visiting the Islands for over ten years. Few of the graves carry names as many of the soldiers were young conscripts without name-tags. Each grave is marked by a white cross, with the name of the soldier where known. The other crosses marking the grave of ‘a soldier known only unto God’ have been adopted by grieving family members who have left flowers, rosaries and personal momentoes. There are many walks around Darwin and it is a quiet, peaceful place. The highlight of our holiday was a visit to Sea Lion
Island, a small island and nature reserve south of Stanley, where we
stayed in the tourist lodge (hotel) for three days.
The Falkland Islands are famed for their birdlife and sea mammals,
and nowhere is this more apparent than on Sea Lion.
In every direction there were penguins, geese, ducks, gulls and
moorland birds by the thousand, with the beaches full of hundreds of
sealions and huge elephant seals. On
walking down to the gentoo penguin rookery we were attacked, or dived on,
by skuas as we passed too close to their nest and chicks.
The gentoo chicks are small fluffy grey creatures who seem to eat
everything they are given. Elephant
seals can reach up to 20 feet and are huge masses of blubber.
They lay in the sun and heaved around to find a comfortable spot
then flipped sand over themselves in an attempt to keep cool.
Offshore killer whales patrolled, no doubt on the lookout for a
stray penguin or sealion. The
sealions are really fierce mammals, who eat penguins, and frequently
attack humans, particularly if the human is between them and the sea.
In many places the coastal tussac grass was 8 feet high.
Sea Lion Island is a ‘must visit’ four tourists, and all too
soon it was time to fly back to Stanley. We spent our last few days in Stanley wandering round
the town, visiting the fascinating museum, the gift shops, the welcoming
Seamen’s Mission (which is open to all and has a wonderful café with
superb home baking) and saying goodbye to Jason’s parents and
grandparents, other family members and friends who made our stay so
memorable. The community spirit is to strong, the social life so vibrant,
and the landscape so wild that we find it easy to see what has attracted
Alison to the Falkland Islands. We will return to the Islands and next
time visit some of the other places which Alison and Jason so highly
recommend. Pearl and David Inglis are now frequent visitors to the Falkland Islands, drawn not just by her grandchildren but also by the lure of long hours of summer sunshine during the Scottish winter
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