Hi Everyone,
Today was the one free day that people travelling back on the military flight had in the Falklands. We had been trying for most of yesterday to organise a trip to Volunteer Point (the most famous penguin colony on the islands). Unfortunately that didn’t work out so instead we went for a trip to Yorke bay, gypsy cove and then finishing up in Stanley. After picking up some stash from the SDA shop we set off to Yorke bay. I must admit, the Falklands so far has been massively exceeding my expectations, the weather was absolutely incredible! We had beautiful sunshine and warm weather all day, and as we arrived in Yorke bay we were treated to views of perfectly pristine white beaches with beautiful rolling dunes behind them. Somehow there was no-one else on the beach! As we arrived we starting walking along the beach and quickly spotted some dolphins (possible Commerson’s dolphins) jumping fully out of the water about 100m away from the shore, an amazing sight! When they had moved on, we continued around the beach (through the section where we had to take care for quicksand) and were rewarded by the sight of a big penguin colony! There were hundreds of gentoo penguins, but also a little cluster of 5 king penguins. We were able to see the penguins wandering around the dunes, and get quite close up for some photos, even though we were joined by another group of about 5 tourists and a warden.
On the way back around, we had a swim in the beautifully clear waters and Laura claims to have seen the dolphins again while we were there. We did cut this swim short after 10 minutes as we had to get to Stanley before the shops closed and we still had a few hours of walking left. We quickly left around towards Gypsy Cove and bumped into hundreds of tourists dropping off buses to see the Magellanic penguins nearby (but never going even slightly towards the huge colony just around the corner in Yorke Bay). The Magellanic penguins were very cute and much more isolated than the Gentoos. While the Gentoos tended to congregate in large colonies, the Magellanic penguins live in burrows so could be found spread out around the path and at random locations throughout the walk. I feel like now would be a good time to say just how much like Devon and Dartmoor the Falklands is. We were walking on paths by the coast through boggy/peaty moorland, surrounded by low lying shrubs and even the Falklands version of gorse called “Diddle-dee”. Even the highlands that we drove through en-route to Stanley in the morning had the same combinations of rocky outcrops and boggy lower regions that would be expected on the moors (although the outcrops were of beautifully folded quartzite rather than the granite intrusion on dartmoor, so there were some differences in appearance.)
We eventually made it into Stanley, past a number of shipwrecks (including the famous Lady Liz). Once there we had about an hour before the shops closed so everyone began frantically running around the tourist shops. As I was here for a few days, I was less bothered by the tourist shops but did go for a quick run around the time to find the tourist information, post office and the museum. We eventually reconvened around the supermarket, stocking up for the evening and the next few days. Strangely there were very few places to eat out in the evening. The economy here seems very geared around the cruise ships, which arrive during the day but leave in the afternoon so evening meals are less needed. We ended up having dinner in a very fancy hotel called the “Waterfront Hotel” which we were slightly too rushed to take full advantage of but still had a pleasant meal.
We managed to sprint to our taxi and then get back to the ship. Today, everyone from the SDA came over to the Discovery for the evening. Everyone enjoyed their two allocated drinks, as well as unlimited crisps! It was very sociable and good times and even involved a bet between Jack and Tom about whether Jack could beat Pip 10:1 on Unreal Tournament. He could not. We eventually decamped so everyone could pack to leave tomorrow!
30/01/23
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