End of Summer

Welcome to this occasional look at life in the Falkland Islands, from the point of view of someone who moved here 3 years ago from the UK.......

Huge luxury yachts visit Stanley

Summer (December to February) in the Falklands sees a lot of activity.  Not only do about 500,000 sheep need to be shorn, but about 50,000 cruise ship passengers arrive into Stanley Harbour,  Their ships are either shuttling round Antarctica or plying between Buenos Aires and Valparaiso, via Cape Horn.  .  Many head off by 4x4 to be driven across country to see the penguins.  I lead walking tours in and around Stanley - a very pleasant job when the weather is good, which it mostly was this year.

Small cruise ship doing handbrake turn through the Narrows

 We had one day of heavy rain, and at the halfway point of the walk, we take a minibus for 10 minutes to another location.  However, on that day, everyone was so wet we just headed straight for the penguin colony to at least see some of the Falklands' famous wildlife.

But, usually, most people are happy to walk for 3 hours and soak up the Falklands experience for the day.

Jiggers in the harbour

  And in February, about 100 squid fishing ships (jiggers) from the Far East, call in to collect their licences to fish in Falklands' waters.  Sadly, some crew decide this makes a great opportunity to jump ship, and 9 men tried to swim ashore this year. Tragically, only 7 made it.  They were repatriated to Vietnam.     The day after this photo (above) was taken, a fierce storm blew through the harbour and two ships had to be towed off the shore.  So, even the harbour can be very dangerous.

Memorial to scientists who died in Antarctica.

 Stanley has been the final port of call for ships heading South for over 100 years.  After the exploits of Captain Scott, Ernest Shackleton and others, the scientific research and exploration continued, leading to momentous discoveries such as the hole in the ozone layer, and climate change evidence stretching back millennia.

Recently, a party of (mainly) retired scientists from the British Antarctic Survey raised a memorial to 28 of their colleagues who left Stanley for Antarctica, and never returned.  The most recent to lose their life was Kirsty Brown, who was killed by a leopard seal in 2003.  It is a stunning, and moving,  memorial, and it is the southern part of an installation - the northern part being at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge.

Winner and 2nd place in the pot plant category.  Well done (and thanks to Edmonde).

March saw the last of the cruise ships come and go.  The next to arrive will be in November.  Life settles down to less esoteric pursuits, such as growing vegetables, and cultivating plants.  My wife won a prize for a spider plant in the Horticultural Show!  The vegetable entries were superb, and our crop of tomatoes stood little chance against competition from gardens which have been regularly fertilised by horse manure for decades!  (Many thanks to our ex-neighbours for leaving us their plants when they left at Christmas!)

The long straight of Ross Road

Last week. saw the very competitive and arduous Stanley Marathon -  the most southerly in the world.  Competitive, as two runners smashed the course record by about 7 minutes.  For a change, the weather was not too windy or cold, merely damp.  But the course is a hilly one and the wind did pick up towards the end, just as some runners were turning into it for the final section.

My shoes, powered by a Zimbabwean de-miner,  running up a steep hill

 It's also very competitive as many runners enter as teams, each of the 4 runners running about 10 kilometres (6 miles).  A group of Zimbabweans, over here to clear some minefields made a request for some running shoes on the eve of the race, and I was happy to hand my size sevens to the chap in the photo above, just prior to the start.

Tim Drew about to take 7 minutes off the course record

The military also enter many runners - the runner-up was in the RAF - and teams of Gurkhas were encouraging each other throughout the course.  None could get near local primary school-teacher, Tim Drew, who had an amazing run.

There were also about 17 Argentine runners, some of whom fly over every year in an attempt to steal the glory and the headlines in Buenos Aires.  However, I doubt the local conditions can be found in Argentina to allow them to train for this event.

As there is only one flight per week, we've had the unusual sight of these runners jogging around Stanley, killing time till their flight tomorrow, back to the South American mainland.

Gaucho...

I'm on that flight, too, as I am hoping to meet up with my wife who has just sailed across the Atlantic on a Royal Mail Ship to St Helena and Cape Town!  Anything to try and experience the golden years of the British Empire!

Hopefully, I can report on how she got on next time.   We are hoping to explore the Chilean Lake District.  We don't see much of Chile on the BBC News, but in the last month, I've watched the reports of huge floods in the Atacama desert, forest fires around Valparaiso, and an erupting volcano in Pucon, where we will be staying.....!!

Never a dull moment!  And, if you are interested in seeing more of life in the Falklands, there's a new series starting tonight of  the BBC2  "Island Parish" !  I'm not sure if it will be available online or broadcast in other countries, but worth looking out for, I hear.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006t6m6/episodes/guide

Peter

Harvest Festival!

[As the summer comes to a close, the weather in Stanley improves dramatically.  Just in time for the many visitors to take away good memories of the Falkland Islands.  I'm living and working here, and this blog is just some of my observations on the place.]


Last week, Stanley had several thousand cruise ship passengers visit the small town (population about 2,500; roughly the same as one of the larger ships.)

A pair of Turkey Vultures, waiting for the wind....

This week, we have about 60 representatives of the world's media in town to report on the imminent Referendum, being held next week.  It's getting difficult to go shopping without being filmed or interviewed!

Star Princess (and facilities on right)

The above photo shows the approach to Gypsy Cove, about 4 miles from Stanley, where many visitors take a minibus to see the penguins.   The "facilities" there are a toilet block and a bus that's been converted to a cafe.  On busy days about 700 visitors stroll round the cliff-top path and enjoy the scenery, and views of penguins.  The recent weather has been the best for months: showing off the location at its best.  It's a shame some tourists earlier in the year only saw it while trying to escape the driving rain.

Veendam and Seabourn Sojourn at anchor.

With others, I work as a Warden when ships are visiting to help ensure the wildlife is not overly disturbed and that visitors get information on the area.  People are keen to know more about the birds and dolphins, as well as the people and history of the islands.
A number of visitors are puzzled as to why the Islanders would have laid out so many minefields, which prevent access to beautiful beaches....

Falklands Thrush

There's a lot more to the place than penguins, but seeing them in the wild for the first time seems to be the main attraction for most people.

Gypsy Cove

Unfortunately, the breeding season is coming to an end, and only about 50 chicks are on the beaches at Gypsy Cove, waiting for their plumage to fully emerge before they can swim off to South America for the austral winter.

Port William, outer harbour

We also had a couple of Danish runners run by, early on Saturday morning.  They were doing one of those "777" challenges - 7 marathons, on 7 continents, in 7 days.    (If you say the Falklands is in Antarctica!).   After Stanley, they head for the airport and the weekly flight to Santiago, Chile.  After a marathon in the wee small hours there, it's on to San Francisco, Sydney, Abu Dhabi, Cairo, and finishing in Copenhagen!  Phew!

Danish runner, heading for Copenhagen, the long way.

There's also been a few luxury charter yachts in the harbour.  This one below, Hanse Explorer, has 7 cabins, and I think was chartered for a family trip to Antartica.

For more details of the boat, try here >>
http://www.charterworld.com/index.html?sub=yacht-charter&charter=hanse-explorer-yacht-1433

Hanse Explorer

A slightly bigger yacht, Sherakhan, had, I understand, a party of about 50 on board.

Sherakhan

There was certainly a party going on, on Saturday night, as the loud music drifted across the still harbour as Stanley enjoyed another calm day.  "Calm" as in lack of wind.  Nearby, the Globe Tavern was competing in the loud music stakes.  Stanley seems to be the "in" place to be!
http://www.sherakhan.com/EN/charters.php

Still, it didn't seem to disturb the wildlife.  A few yards away from the thumping disco music, a young seal was dozing.
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Meanwhile, the locals were preparing for the prestigious Horticultural Society Annual Show.  Although the summer weather had been poor, many gardeners had nurtured their best specimens for the show.

And even if you didn't have green fingers, you could always bake something or create  some jam or pickle.  Or even a flower display (assuming you could grow flowers.)

Cakes galore

My tomatoes are still green, and my potatoes are missing, believed trampled by horses.  So I didn't enter any produce.  Although I did have second thoughts, when I saw the standard of entries in the pizza section.  "I could do better than some of those", I thought, until I noticed it was for the Infant School children!

Creative cake-makers

Prizewinning Swedes, or, as I call them, Turnips.

Some of the produce was being auctioned off, and should fetch high prices.  The remainder was transferred next door for a display at the Harvest Festival!  Doesn't time fly ??

Not sure how this got here....wrong turning in the Dartford Tunnel?

Next Week -  will the Referendum outcome be as predicted?
Will some stunt be pulled in front of the world's Press?
Will people vote?

We'll see,
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STOP PRESS
A couple of weeks ago, I listed some job vacancies here.  Added to those, there are now vacancies for a Director of Health, a Head Teacher for the sceondary school, and a Rodent Control Operative!   What's going on?  Rats?  Sinking ship?   :-)
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Peter

Kidney Island revisited. Cruises cancelled :-(

[Greetings from the Falkland Islands.  Am currently here for  2 years.  Exploring the islands in spare time.  Enjoying the wildlife and community activities.  Not enjoying politics from neighbours....]

We recently entertained two visitors from the UK - our first, and hopefully not our last.  As a treat, I arranged an evening visit to Kidney Island, in the next bay from Stanley, and asked several friend to come along.   The photo below was captured by Larry's son, in the UK, from the Jetty Centre webcam, as we waited for the launch to take us on the 45-minute trip.
http://www.cwfi.co.fk/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=94

You can see what the weather is like at any time in Stanley by checking the webcam on the Cable & Wireless site, and you'll also see the crowds (I kid you not) when cruise ships are in the harbour.   This is where the tour guides meet up with passengers wishing to explore the Falklands - its wildlife and history.  There should be a ship, Seabourn Sojourn, arriving on Saturday 8th December, but more of that later............

"Wave, we're in the Falklands!"

So, after the excitement of the charity Fire Engine Pull, we set off from the jetty at 5pm.  Kidney Island is a National Nature Reserve and permission is needed to land there.  Having persuaded the Environmental Planning Department that I wouldn't set fire to it (its soil is mostly peat), or upset the wildlife, I was issued with a permit, and copies of the Countryside Code which visitors needed to follow.  There are no mice or rats on the island, and this encourages the Sooty Shearwater and rare, endemic, Cobb's wren to breed there.

Kidney Island - about 1 mile by half a mile.

The small island is approached by boat which anchors in the shallow, pale-blue bay (indicating a kelp-free area) in the photo, above.  We then were transferred by zodiac boat to the stony beach.  Once everyone was ashore, we headed up the hill through the tussac grass to the semi-circular bay across the island, where sea-lions bask.  After that, we headed left (in the photo, but north in reality), to the Rockhopper penguins on the cliffs, and then back to the slopes above the landing bay, to await the return of the Sooty Shearwaters...  Sounds easy, doesn't it?  What could possibly go wrong?

The boat waiting for us in the bay

Well, on a previous visit, (see my blog entry for the 10th February 2012) we had to take evasive action as a large sea-lion steam-rollered down the same path as we were walking up.  Luckily, the only wildlife we saw in the grass this time was the delightful Cobb's wren.  But, strangely, no-one else volunteered to lead the way through the dense and head-high grass!

Tussac grass is taller than you think.  Where are the others?

After about an hour of walking through the maze, we found a small rookery of Rockhopper penguins, and Imperial Shags, on top of sheer cliffs.  They often nest together for mutual protection from predators, of which there were many, in the shape of Turkey Vultures,  gathered around.

First glimpse of a Rocky..

We spent about an hour just quietly observing the birds at close quarters.  Almost all had eggs, and the male and female birds shared the sitting duties.

Imperial shags

Rockhoppers!

Stuart and Jackie in ringside seats....

Sitting on the eggs...

Rockhopper eggs are no longer collected for food, but some Falklanders do still collect the more numerous Gentoo penguin eggs (under licence).  However, it's not thought that this threatens the penguin population, as the birds normally produce a second egg, when they realise the first has been taken.  Many are lost to predators such as skuas.

Partner ready to take over egg-sitting duties....

I have yet to sample scrambled penguin eggs, or meringues made from penguins.  It sounds a bit cruel, but is probably less so than eating battery hens' eggs.  David Attenborough has recently admitted that stealing birds' eggs when he was a boy started his life-long interest and enthusiasm for Natural History.  How poorer would all our lives have been if he had chosen to become a computer programmer or an accountant?

Trying to see the penguins, but avoid the cliff edge.

All too soon, we headed west, back to the beach.  The merry band still faithfully following me like the children of Hamelin.  Not being able to see more than six feet in any direction restrained the more adventurous who might have wanted to explore the island.

The group beginning to wonder if they are stranded...

Not that there was a lot to see.  There is an old hut which was used by locals when cutting the tussac grass for fodder, for their livestock around Stanley.   Apart from that, it's wall-to-wall tussac grass.  Oh, and some bogs, one of which almost swallowed my wife, wearing her brand new walking shoes!  We can laugh about it now, but the sludge stopped at her thighs.  The shoes are recovering.....I did say to follow me....

Inquisitive Fur seals investigate us. 

We had an hour before it got dark, and so had a picnic on the beach where we attracted an audience!  I don't know who was more interested in whom!  About 12 seals became braver and braver, eventually clambering ashore only a few feet from us.

Sammy?

Unfortunately, no-one had brought any fish or a beach ball to keep them entertained......

"Bet you can't do this!"

As the sun began to set, I began to get a bit worried that I had oversold the Sooty Shearwater phenomenon. Despite seeing hundreds of their nests at the base of tussac clumps and copious amounts of guano, not a bird was in the sky.  Then suddenly, we saw one, then another, and within 10 minutes, thousands had arrived!

Sunset, and not a single Shearwater to be seen!

We watched entranced as the aerial multitude gradually came lower and lower, until, in the gloaming, we could only vaguely see them and found them more easily by sound.   The sound of their wings as they passed within inches, and the sound of the "THUMP" as they crash-landed on the soft peat at our feet.

Dusk, and the sky fills with thousands of Sooty Shearwaters.

Eventually, it was too dangerous to stay in their flight path, and we retired to the beach to await the Zodiac.  As more and more birds landed and waddled around to find their nests, the numbers in the sky reduced to almost countable levels.  50,000?  More than I could count, anyway.

Soon we were skimming through the sea in the warm and comfortable Sulivan Shipping launch, "Barinthus".  The excited chatter onboard suggested that the others had felt the experience had been an "Attenborough" moment.  I certainly did, despite it being my third visit.
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Penguins, with Stanley across the harbour

 Being able to visit special places like Kidney Island is one of the benefits of living here.  However, day tourists from cruise ships can also enjoy brief, but unique, encounters with penguins and other wildlife.  Last Friday, I accompanied a group from the ship, "Seabourn Sojourn", around the coastline near Stanley.

Spotting penguins in their burrows, with ship behind.

 During a very warm (for here) day, we saw some of the unique species such as Flightless Steamer ducks, and also spotted dolphins near the Lady Elizabeth wreck.  However, a dark shadow now hangs over these tours, as 2 more ships this week cancelled planned visits.

Seabourn Sojourn.  Anchored in the outer harbour.

This follows on from 2 cancellations at the end of November.  The 2 new cancellations coincide with the days that I would have been acting in my new post of  Penguin Warden (!), so it looks as if my services, (like dozens of others) will not be required then.

On busy days, the population of Stanley can double or even treble with visitors.  Can you imagine London coping with 10 million visitors in one day, and none the next?   People here stop doing their day jobs as civil servants or lorry drivers, and gain valuable extra income as tour guides.  So, these cancellations, as a result of intimidation from Argentina, are unwelcome, to say the least.  Recently, a shipping agent's office in Buenos Aires was smashed up, and I'm sure other pressure is being exerted on cruise companies.

I hope that affected passengers complain to their cruise companies at missing out on these world-class and unique opportunities on the Falklands.  As we've seen this week with Starbucks, customer pressure can make big companies sit up and take notice.

On a happier note, today in the West Store, I noticed my purchase of Waitrose Aloe Vera toilet roll was a bit misshapen:  more triangular than round, although I didn't think my life would be ruined by it, not being the main loo roll changer of the house. The checkout chap suggested it had been crushed at some point on its 8,000 mile journey, and offered to see if he could give me a discount. He duly returned with "50% off!".

Every Little Helps!

Peter